THE END 

OF 

RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY, 

FRIENDLY CORRESPONDENCE 

BETWEEN 

A RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF PROTESTANTS, 

AND 

A ROMAN CATHOLIC DIVINE. 

IN THREE PARTS. 

PART I. ON THE RULE OF FAITH ; OR, THE METHOD OF FINDING OUT 
THE TRUE RELIGION. 
PART II. ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRUE CHURCH. 
PART III. ON RECTIFYING MISTAKES CONCERNING THE CATHOLIC 

CHURCH. 

BY THE RT. REV. JOHN MILNER, 

D. V. V. A. F. S. A. LONDON, AND CATK. ACAD. BOMB. 

Addressed to the RU Rev. Dr. Burgess, Lord Bishop of St. David's, in 
Answer to his Lordship's Protestant's Catechism. 

TO WHICH IS ADDED THE AUTHOr's POSTSCRIPT. 

NEW-YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY D. & J. SADLIER, 

31 BARCLAY STREET. 
BOSTON:— 128 FEDERAL STREET. 

MONTREAL, C. E. : — COR. ST. FRANCIS XAVIER AND NOTRE DAME STS. 



1805. 



«* Let those treat you harshly, who are not acquainted with the difficulty 

of attaining to truth and avoiding error. Let those treat you harshly, who 
know not how hard it is to get rid of old prejudices. Let those treat you 
harshly, who have not learned how very hard it is to purify the interior eye 
and render it capable of contemplating the sun of the soul, truth. But as 
to us: we are far from this disposition towards persons who are separated 
from us, not by errors of their own invention, but by being entangled in 
those of others. We are so far from this disposition that we pray to God, 
that, in refuting the false opinions of those, whom you follow, not from 
malice, but imprudence, he would bestow upon us that spirit of peace, which 
feels no other sentiment than charity, no other interest than that of Jesus 
Christ, no other wish but for your salvation." St. Austin, Doctor of the 
Church, A. D. 400, contra Ep. Fund. c. i. c. ii. 

** There are many other things which keep me in the bosom of the Catholic 
Church. The agreement of different people and nations keeps me there. 
The authority established by Miracles, nourished by hope, increased by 
charity, and confirmed by antiquity, keeps me there. The succession of 
bishops in the See of St. Peter, the apostles, (to whom our Lord, after his 
resurrection, committed his sheep, to be fed) down to the present bishop, 
keeps me there. Finally, the very name of CATHOLIC, which, among 
eo many heresies, this church alone possesses, keeps me there." St. Au- 
guslin, Doctor of Ike Ckurch, A. D. 400, contra Epis. Fundam. c. 4. 

•* It is a shame to charge men with what they are not guilty of, in order 
to make the breach wider, already too wide." Dr. Montague, bishop of 
Norwich. Invoc, of Saints, p. 60. 

'* Let them not lead people by the nose to believe they can prove their 
supposition, that the Pope is Antichrist, and the Papists idolaters, when 
they cannot." Dr. Herbert Thorndike, 'prebendary of Westminister, Just 
Weights and Measures, p. 1 1. 

" The object of their (the Catholics) adoration of the B. Sacrament is 
the only true and eternal God, hypostatically joined with his holy humanity, 
which humanity they believe actually present under the veil of the sacra- 
mental signs : and if they thought him not present, they are so far from 
worshiping the bread in this case, that themselves profess it to be idolatry 
to do so. 1 ' Dr. Jeremy Taylor, bishev of Down. Liberty of prophesying; 
fhap. xx. 

Exchange 
NOV 2 5 1933 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

LETTER I. 

Introduction. 

Pag* 

Mr Brown's Apol :>gy to Dr. M. Account of the Friendly Society of 
New Cottage . . . . . . . . . . 29 

ESSAY I. 

On the Existence of God and Natuial Religion, by the Kev. Samuel 

Carey, LL.D 32 

ESSAY II. 

On the truth of the Christian Religion, by Do. .... 35 
LETTER II. 

To James Brown, Esq. 

Dr. M 's Conditions for entering on the Correspondence. Freedom 

of Speech. Sincerity and Candour. A Conclusive Method . 41 
LETTER III. 
From James Brown, Esq. 
Agreement to the Conditions on the part of the Society . . 43 
LETTER IV. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Dispositions for success in Religious Inquiries. Renunciation of pre- 
judices, passions, and vicious inclinations. Fervent prayer . ib. 
LETTER V. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Rule or Method of finding out the True Religion. Christ has left a 
Rule. This Rule must be sure and unerring. It must be adapted 
to the capacity and situations of the bulk of mankind . . 45 
LETTER VI. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
First fallacious Rule; Private Inspiration. This has led numberless 
Christians into errors, impiety and vice, in ancient and in modern 
times. Account of Modern Fanatics, Anabaptists, Quakers, Mora- 
vians, Swedenborgians, Methodists, &c 47 

LETTER VII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Objections of certain Members of the Society answered . . 56 
LETTER VIII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Second fallacious Rule; the Scripture according to each person's par- 
ticular interpretation of it. Christ did not intend that mankind, in 
general, should learn his Religion from a Book. No Legislator 
ever made Laws without providing Judges and Magistrates to explain 
and enforce them. Dissensions, divisions, immorality, and infidelity, 



if Contents* 



Pag* 



lusions of Protestants in this matter. Their inconsistency in mak- 
ing Articles, Catechisms, &c. Acknowledgment of learned Pro- 
testants on this head 5H 

LETTER IX. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The subject continued- Protestants have no evidence of the Inspi- 
ration of Scripture: nor of its authenticity: nor of the fidelity of 
their copies: nor of its sense. Causes of the obscurity of Scripture: 
Instances of this. The Protestant Rule affords no ground for Faith, 
Doubts in which those who follow it live and also die . . 71 
LETTER X. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The True Rule, namely, The Whole Word of God, unwritten as well 
as written, subject to the interpretation. of the Church. In this and 
in every other country, the written law is grounded upon the un- 
written law. Christ taught the Apostles by word of mouth, and sent 
them to preach it by word of mouth. This method was followed by 
them and their disciples and successors. Testimonies of this from 

the Fathers of the five first centuries 79 

LETTER XI. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The subject continued. Protestants forced to have recourse to the 
Catholic Rule, in different instances. Different instances of this. 
Their vain attempts to adopt it in other instances. Qubbling eva- 
sions of the Articles, Canons, Oaths, and Laws respecting uniformi- 
ty. Acknowledged necessity of deceiving the people. Bishop 
Hoadley the patron of this hypocrisy. The Catholic Rule confessed 
by Bishop Marsh to be the Original Rule. Proofs that it has never 
been abrogated. Advantages of this Rule to the Church at large, 

and to its individual members 88 

LETTER XII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Objections answered. Texts of Scripture. Other objections. Illu- 
sory declamation of Bishop Porteus. The advice of Tobias, when 
he sent his Son into a strange country, recommended to the Society 
of New Cottage , 102 



PART II. 



LETTER Xm. 

To James Brown, Esq. 
Congratulation with the Society of New Cottage on their acknowl- 
edgment of the right Rule of Faith. Proof that the Catholic Church 
alone is possessed of this Rule. Characters or Marks of the True 
Church • , \t9 

LETTER XIV. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Unity, the First Mark of the True Church. This proved from Rea- 
son—from Scripture— and froa the Holy Fathers ... Ill 



Contents, 



LETTER XV. 

To James Brown, Esq. 

Want of Unity among Protestants in general. This acknowledged by 
their eminent writers. Striking instances of it in the Established 
Church. Vain attempts to reconcile diversity of belief with uni- 
form Articles 117 

LETTER XVI. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Unity of the Catholic Church — in Doctrine — in Liturgy — in Govern- 
ment, and Constitution 123 

LETTER XVII. 
To Dr. M. From James Brown, Esq. 
Objections against the exclusive claims of Catholics. Extract of a let- 
ter from the Rev. N. N. Prebendary of N. Bishop Watson's doc- 
trine on this head 126 

LETTER XVIII. 

To James Brown, Esq. 
Objections answered. Bishop Watson, by attempting to prove too 
much, proves nothing. Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and the 
Fathers on this head. Exclusive claim of the Catholic Church a 

proof of her truth 128 

LETTER XIX. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Second Mark of the True Church, Sanctity. Sanctity of doctrine 
wanting to the different Protestant Communions — to Luther's sys- 
tem—to Calvin's— to that of the Established Church — to those of 
Dissenters and Methodists. Doctrine of the Catholic Church Holy 132 
POSTSCRIPT. 

Variations and impiety of the late Rev. John Wesley's doctrine 140 
LETTER XX. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Means of Sanctity. The Seven Sacraments, possessed by Catholics. 
Protestants possess none of them, except Baptism. The whole 
Liturgy of the Established Church borrowed from the Catholic Mis- 
sal and Ritual. Sacrifice the most acceptable worship of God. 
The moat perfect Sacrifice offered in the Catholic Church. Pro- 
testants destitute of Sacrifice. Other means of Sanctity in the Ca- 
tholic communion 142 

LETTER XXI. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Fruits of Sanctity. All the saints were Catholics. Comparison of 
eminent Protestants with contemporary Catholics. Immorality 
caused by changing the Ancient Religion .... 150 
LETTER XXII. 
To Mr. J. Toulmin. 
Objections answered. False accounts of the Church before the Re- 
formation, so called. Ditto of John Fox's Martyrs. The vices ot 



vl Contents. 

practices and exercises common among Catholics but despised by ' 
Protestants 153 

LETTER XXIII. 

To James Brown, Esq. 
Divine Attestation of Sanctity in the Catholic Church. Miracles tha 
Criterion of Truth. Christ appeals to them, and promises a contin- 
uation of them. The Holy Fathers and Church writers attest their 
continuation, and appeal to them, in proof of the True Church. 
Evidence of the Truth of many Miracles. Irreligious scepticism oi 
Dr. Conyers Middleton: this undermines the Credit of the Gospel. 
Continuation of miracles down to the present time: living witness- 
es of it 16« 

LETTER XXIV. 

To James Brown, Esq. 
Objections answered. False and unauthenticated miracles no disproof 
of true and authenticated ones. Strictness of the examination of re- 
ported miracles at Rome. Not necessary to know God's design in 
working each miracle. Examination of the arguments of celebra- 
ted Protestants against Catholic miracles. Objection of Gibbon and 
the late bishop of Salisbury (Dr. John Douglass) against St. Ber- 
nard's miracles refuted. St. Xavier's miracles proved from the au- 
thors quoted against them. Dr. Middleton's confident assertion 
clearly refuted. Bishop Douglass's Conclusive Evidencefrom Acos- 
ta against St. Xavier's miracles clearly refuted, by the testimony of 
the said Acosta. Testimony of Ribadeneira concerning St. Igna- 
tius's miracles truly stated. True account of the miracle of Sara- 
gossa Impostures at the tomb of Abbe Paris. Refutation of the 
Rev. Peter Robert's pamphlet, concerning the miraculous cure of 

Winefrid White 168 

LETTER XXV. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The True Church, Catholic. Always Catholic in name, by the testi- 
mony of the Fathers. Still distinguished by that name in spite of 

all opposition . 176 

LETTER XXVI. 
To James Brown Esq. 
Qualities of Catholicity. The Church Catholic as to its members: as 
to its extent; as to its duration. The original Church of this coun- 
try 179 

LETTER XXVII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Objections of the Rev. Josuah Clark answered. Existence of an in- 
visible Church disproved. Vain attempt to trace the existence of 
Protestantism through the discordant heresies of former ages. Vain 
Prognostication of the failure of the True Church. Late attempts 

to undermine it 184 

LETTER XXVIII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The True Church, Apostolical ; so described bj the ancient Fathers. 
APOSTOL CAL TREE of the Catholic Church explained, bf a 



Contents. vii 

brief aecount of the Popes and of distinguished Pastors, also of na- 
tions converted -by her, and of heretics and schismatics cut off from 

the True Church 188 

LETTER XXIX. 

To James Brown, Esq. 



Apostolical succession of Ministry in the Catholic Church. Among 
Protestant Societies the Church of England alone claims such sue- 
cession. Doctrine and conduct of Luther, and of different Dissen- 
ters on this point. Uncertainty of the Orders of the Established 
Church from the doctrine of its founders — from the history of the 
times — from the defectiveness of the form. Apostolic Mission, evi- 
dently wanting to all Protestants. They cannot show an ordinary 
mission; they cannot work miracles to prove an extraordinary one 199 
LETTER XXX. 
To James Brown, Esq. 

Objections of the Rev. Josuah Clark answered. Apostolical ministry 
not interrupted by the personal vices of certain Popes. Fable of 
Pope Joan refuted. Comparison between the Protestant and the 
Catholic Missions for the conversion of Infidels. Vain prediction 
of conversions and of reformation by the Bible Societies. Increase 
of Crimea commensurate with that of the Societies . . 308 

• POSTSCRIPT. 

Recapitulation of things proved in the foregoing Letters . 215 

PART III. 

LETTER XXXI. 
To the Rev. J. M, D. D. 
Introduction. Effects produced by the foregoing Letters on the 
m»nds of Mr. Brown, and others of his Society. Thjs in part coun- 
teracted by the Bishop of London's (Dr. Porteus') Charges against 

the Catholic Religion 218 

LETTER XXXII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Observations on the Charges in question. Impossibility of the True 
Church being guilty of them. Just conditions to be required"by a 
Catholic Divine in discussing them. Calumny and misrepresenta- 
tion necessary weapons for the assailants of the True Church. In- 
stances of gross calumny published by eminent Protestant writers, 
now living. Effects of these calumnies. No Catholic ever shaken 
in his faith by them. They occasion the conversion of many Pro- 
testants. They render their authors dreadfully guilty before God 219 
LETTER XXXIII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Charge of Idolatry. Protestantism not originally founded on this. 
Invocation of the Prayers of A ngels and Saints grossly misrepre- 
sented by Protestants: truly stated from the Council of Trent, and 
Catholic Doctors. Vindication of the practice. Evasive attack of 
the Bishop of Durham: Retorted upon his Lordship The practice 
recommended by Luther: vindicated by distinguished Protestant 
B\ shops. Not imposed upon the faithful: highly consoling and 
beneficial ... . 226 



viii 



Contents. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

To James Brown, Esq. 
Religious Memorials. Doctrine»and practice of Catholics, most of all, 
misrepresented on this head. Old Protestant versions of Scripture 
corrupted to favour such misrepresentation. Unbounded calumnies 
in the Homilies, and other Protestant publications. True doctrine 
of the Catholic Church defined by the Council of Trent, and taught 
in her hooks of instruction. Errors of Bishop Porteus, in fact and 
in reasoning. Inconsistency of his own practice. No obligation on 
Catholics of possessing pious images, pictures, or relics . . 232 
LETTER XXXV. 
To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A 
Objections refuted. That the Saints cannot hear us. Extravagant ad- 
dresses to Saints. Want of candour in explaining them. No evi- 
dence of the Faith of the Church. Notorious falsehoods of the Bp. 
of London, concerning the ancient doctrine and practice . 238 
LETTER XXXVI. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
Transubstantiation. Important remark of Bishop Bossuet concerning 
it. Catholics not worshippers of bread and wine. Acknowledg- 
ment of some eminent Protestants. Disingenuity of others, in con- 
cealing the main question, and bringing forward another of second- 
ary importance. The Lutherans and the most respectable Prelates 
of the Establishment agree with Catholics on the main point . 241 
LETTER XXXVII. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
The Real Presence. Variations of the Established Church on this 
point. Inconsistency of her present doctrine concerning it. Proofs 
of the Real Presence from Christ's promise of the Sacrament; from 
his institution of it. The same proved from the ancient Fathers. 
Absurd position of Bishop Porteus, as to the origin of the tenet. 
The reality strongly maintained by Luther. Acknowledged by the 
most learned English Bishops and Divines. Its superior excellence 

and sublimity 245 

LETTER XXXVIII. 
To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
Objections answered. Texts of Scripture examined. Testimony of 
the senses weighed. Alleged Contradictions disproved . . 252 
LETTER XXXIX. 
To James Brown, Esq. 
•Jommunion under one or both kinds a matter of discipline. Protest- 
ants forced to recur to Tradition and Church discipline. The bless- 
ed Eucharist a Sacrifice as well as a Sacrament. As a sacrifice, 
both kinds necessary: as a Sacrament, whole and entire under either 
kind. Protestants receive no Sacrament at all The apostles some- 
times administered the communion under one kind. The Text, I 
Cor. xi. 27, corrupted in the English Protestant Bible. Testimo- 
nies of the Fathers for communion in one kind. Occasion of the 
ordinances of St. Leo and Pope Gelasius. Discipline of the Church 
different at different times in this matter. Luther allowed of com- 
munion in one kind; also the French Calvinists; also the Church 
of England 250 



Contents. 



LETTER XL 

To James Brown, Esq. 

Excellence of Sacrifice. Appointed by God. Practised by all people, 
except Protestants. Sacrifice of the New Law, promised of old to 
the Christian Church. Instituted by Christ. The Holy Fathers 
bear testimony to it, and performed it. St. Paul's Epistle to the He- 
brews misinterpreted by the Bishops of London, Lincoln, &c. De- 
ception of talking of the Popish Mass. Inconsistency of Estab- 
lished Church in ordaining Priests without having a Sacrifice. Ir- 
religious invectives of Dr. Hey against the Holy Mass, without his 
understanding it! 261 

LETTER XLI. 

To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
Absolution from sin. Horrid misrepresentation of Catholic doctrine. 
Real doctrine of the Church, defined by the Council of Trent. 
This pure and holy. Violent distortion of Christ's words concern- 
ing the forgiveness of sins, by Bishop Porteus. Opposite doctrine 
of Chillingworth: and of Luther and the Lutherans: and of the Es- 
tablished Liturgy. Inconsistency of Bishop P. Refutation of his 
arguments about confession: and of his assertions concerning the an- 
cient doctrine. Impossibility of imposing this practice on mankind. 
Testimony of Chillingworth as to the comfort and benefit of a good 
confession - . . . 267 

LETTER XLII. 

To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
Indulgences. Unsupported false definition of them by the Bishop of 
London. His further calumnies on the subject. Similar calumnies 
of other Protestant Prelates and Divines. The genuine doctrine of 
Catholics. No permission to commit sin. No pardon of any future 
sin. No pardon of sin at all. No exemption from contrition or do- 
ing penance. No transfer of superfluous holiness. Retortion of 
the charge on the Protestant tenet of imputed justice. A mere re- 
laxation of temporal punishment. No encouragement of vice; but 
rather of virtue. Indulgences authorized in all Protestant Societies. 
Proofs of this in the Church of England. Among the Anabaptists. 
Among the ancient and modern Calvinists. Scandalous Bulls, Dis- 
pensation, and Indulgences of Luther and his disciples . . 275 

LETTER XLIII. 

To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
Purgatory and Prayers for the dead. Weak objection of Dr. Porteus 
against a middle state. Scriptural arguments for it. Dr. P's Ap- 
peal to Antiquity defeated. Testimonies of Lutherans and English 
Prelates in favour of Prayers for the Dead. Eminent modern Pro- 
testants, who proclaim a Universal Purgatory. Consolations attend- 
ing the Catholic belief and practice 882 

LETTER XLIV. 
To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
Extreme Unction. Clear proof of this Sacrament from Scripture. 
Impiety and inconsistency of the Bishop in slighting this. His Ap- 
peal to Antiquity refuted . .... 289 



* 



* 



Contents. 



LETTER XLV. 

To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 

Antichrist: Impious assertions of Protestants concerning him. Their 
absurd and contradictory systems. Retortion of the charge of Apos- 
tasy. Other charges against the Popedom refuted . . . 294 
LETTER XLVI. 
To the Rev. Robert Clayton, M. A. 
The Pope's Supremacy truly stated. His spiritual authority proved 
from Scripture. Exercised and acknowledged in the primitive ages. 
St. Gregory's contest with the Patriarch of C. P. about the title of 
(Ecumenical. Concessions of eminent Protestants . v . 297 
LETTER XLVII. 
To James Brown, Jun. Esq. 
The language of the Liturgy and Reading the Scriptures. Language 
a matter of discipline. Reasons for the Latin Church retaining the 
Latin Language. Wise economy of the Church as to reading the 
Holy Scriptures. Inconsistencies of the Bible Societies . . 307 
LETTER XLV11I. 
To James Brown, Jun. Esq. 
Various misrepresentations. Canonical and Apocryphal books of 
Scripture. Pretended invention of five new Sacraments. Inten- 
tion of Ministers of the Sacrament^. Continence of the Clergy — 
Recommended by Parliament. Advantages of fasting. Deposition of 
Sovereigns by Popes far less frequent tnan by Protestant Reformers. 
The bishop's egregious falsehoods respecting the primitive Church 314 
LETTER XLIX. 
To James Brown, Jun. Esq. 
Religious Persecution. The Catholic Church claims no right to in- 
flict sanguinary punishments, but disclaims it. The right of tem- 
poral Princes and States in this matter. Meaning of Can. 3, Late- 
ran iv. truly stated. Queen Mary persecuted as a Sovereign, not as 
a Catholic. James II. deposed for refusing to persecute. Retortion 
of the charge upon Protestants the most effectual way of silencing 
them upon it. Instances of persecution by Protestants in every 
Protestant country: in Germany: in Switzerland: at Geneva, and 
in France: in Holland: in Sweden: in Scotland: in England. Vio- 
lence and long continuance of it here. Eminent loyalty of Catho- 
lics. Two circumstances which distinguish the persecution exer- 
cised by Catholics from that exercised by Protestants . . . 319 
LETTER L. 
To the Friendly Society of New Cottage. 
Conclusion. Recapitulation of points proved in these letters. The 
True Rule of Faith: The True Church of Christ. Falsity of the 
Charges alleged against her. An equal moral evidence for the Ca- 
tholic as for the Christian Religion. The former, by the confession 
of its adversaries, the safer side. No security too great where 
Eternity is at stake! 336 

A POSTSCRIPT 
T° the second Edition of the Address to the Right Rev. the Lord Bp. 
of St. David's, occasioned by his Lordship's ' One Word to the Rev. 
Dr. Milner.' ......... 341 



ADDRESS. 



TO 

THE RIGHT REVEREND 
LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S. 

My Lord, 

The following Letters, with some others belonging to the same 
series, were written in the latter part of the year 1801, and the 
first months of 1802, though they have since that time been 
revised, and, in" some respects, altered. They grew out of the 
controversy, which the principal writer of them was obliged to 
sustain against an eminent author, a prebendary of the cathedral, 
and the chancellor of the diocese of Winchester, who had per- 
sonally challenged him to the field of argument, in a book, called 
Reflections on Popery. That controversy having made some 
noise in the public, and even in the house of parliament, par- 
ticularly in the upper house, where the lord chancellor,* and a 
predecessor of your lordship, then the light and glory of the 
established church,f expressed opposite opinions on the issue of 
it, certain powerful personages expressed an earnest wish for 
its termination. For this purpose, the usual method of silencing 
authors was at first resolved upon with respect to the writer, 
and a Catholic gentleman of name, still living, was commissioned 
to sound him on the business :. but, in conclusion, it was thought 
most advisable to employ the influence which the prelate alluded 
to had so justly acquired over him. This method succeeded ; 
and, accordingly, these Letters, which, otherwise, would have 
been published fifteen years ago, have slept in silence ever since. 

I trust your lordship will not be the person to ask me, why 
the Letters, after having been so long suppressed, now appear ? 
—You are witness, my lord, of the increased and increasing 
virulence of the press against Catholics ; and this, in many 
instances, directed by no ignoble or profane hands. Abundant 
proofs of this will be seen in the following work. For the 
present, it is sufficient to mention, that one of your most vene- 
rable colleagues publishes and re-publishes, that we stand 

• The Right Hon. the Earl of Loughborough. 

t The Right Rev. Dr. Horsely, successively bishop of St. David's, Ro- 
chester, and St. Asaph's. 



xii 



Address 



convicted of idolatry, blasphemy, and sacrilege. Another pro- 
claims to the clergy, assembled in Synod, that we are enemies 
of all law, human and divine. More than one of them has charged 
us with the guilt of that Anti-Christian conspiracy on the conti- 
nent, of which we were exclusively the victims. This dignitary 
accuses us of Antinomianism ; that maintains our religion to be 
■Ht only for persons weak in body and in mind. In short, we 
seldom find ourselves, or our religion, mentioned in modern 
sermons, or other theological works, unaccompanied with the 
epithets of superstitious, idolatrous, impious, disloyal, perfdious, 
and sanguinary. One of the theologues alluded to, who, like 
many others, has gained promotion by the fervour of his J\ O 
POPERY zeal, has exalted his tone to the pitch of proclaiming 
that our religion is calculated for the meridian of hell / /—Thus 
solemnly, and almost continually, charged before the tribunal ot 
the public, with crimes against society and our country, no less 
than against religion, and yet conscious, all the while, of our 
entire innocence, it is not only lawful, but also a duty, which 
we owe to our fellow-subjects and ourselves, to repel these 
charges, by proving that there was reason, and religion, ani 
loyalty, and good faith among Christians, before Luther quarrelled 
with Leo X., and Henry VIII. fell in love with Ann Bullen , 
and that, if we ourselves have not yet been persuaded by the 
arguments, either of the monk or the monarch, to relinquish the 
faith originally preached in this island, above 1300 years before 
their time, we are, at least, possessed of common sense, virtuous 
principles, and unatained loyalty. 

The writer might assign another reason for making the present 
publication ; namely, the number and acrimony of his own public 
opponents on subjects of religion. To say nothing of the ground- 
less charges, by word of mouth, of certain privileged personages 
the following writers are some of those who have published 
books, pamphlets, essays, or notes against him, on subjects of a 
religious nature; the deans of Winchester and Peterborough; 
chancellor Sturges ; prebendary Poulter ; the doctors Hoadly, 
Ash, Ryan, Ledwich, Le Mesurier,* and Elrington ; Sir Rich- 

* To one only objection of his adversaries, the writer wishes here to give 
an answer, that of having quoted falsely; which, however, has been 'ad- 
vanced by very few of them, and is confined, as far as he knows, to two in- 
stances. The first of these, is, that the writer, in his History of Winches- 
ter, vol. i. p. Gl, " quotes Gilda*, for ;he exploits of king Arthur, who never 
once mentions his name." This objection was first started by Dr. O'Conor, 
in his Culvmbanus, was borrowed from him, by the Rev. Mr. Le Mesurier, 
in his Bampton Lectures, and was adopted from the latter by the Rev. Mr. 
Grier, in his Answer to Ward's Errata. After all, this pretended forgery 



Address 



xiii 



ard Musgrave, John Reeves, Esq. ; the Reverend Messrs Wil- 
liamson, Bazeley, Churton, Grier, and Roberts ; besides numerous 
anonymous riflemen in the Gentleman's Magazine, the Monthly 
Magazine, the Anti-Jacobin Review, the Protestant Advocate, 
the Antibiblion, and other periodical works, including newspa- 
pers. By some of these he has been challenged into the field 
of controversy, and when he did not appear there, he has been 
posted as a coward. 

A still more cogent reason, my lord, for the appearance of 
this work, which was heretofore suppressed, at the desire of a 
former bishop of St. David's, has been furnished by his present 
successor, m the work the latter has lately published, called 
THE PROTESTANT'S CATECHISM. This is no ordinary 
effusion of NO POPERY zeal. It was not called for by the 
increase of the ancient religion in his lordship's diocese, which 
teems with Methodist jumpers, to the danger of his cathedral 
and parish churches being left quite empty ; while not one 
Catholic family, is, perhaps, to be found in it. It was not pro- 
voked by any late attempt, on the established church, or on 
Protestanism in general ; as the bishop does not pretend that 
such thing has taken place. Nevertheless he comes forward in 
his Episcopal mitre, bearing in his hands a new Protestant 
Catechism, to be learnt by Protestants of every description, which 
teaches them to hate and persecute their elder brethren, the 
authors of their Christianity and civilization ! In fact, this 
Christian bishop, begins and ends his Protestant Catechism, 
with a quotation from a Puritan regicide, declaring, that " Popery 
is not to be tolerated, either in public or in private, and that it 
must be thought how to remove it, and hinder the growth thereof :" 
adding, " if they say, that, by removing their idols we violate 
their consciences, we have no warrant to regard conscience, 
which is not grounded on Scripture."* This, your lordship 

of the writer, will be fouud, on consulting the passage referred to above, to 
be nothing-else but a blunder of his critics ; since it will appear that he 
quotes William, of Malmsbury, for the exploits of Arthur and Gi das. barely 
for the year in which one of them, the battle of Mons Eadonicus, 1oo., place ! 
The second accusation of this nature, was inserted by one of the above 
nnmed writers, in the Gentleman's Magazine, namely, that the writer had 
advanced, without any historical authority., that James I. used to call No- 
vember 5, " Cecil's holiday." In answer to this charge, he gave notice in 
the next number of the Magazine, that he had sent up 'o the editor's office, 
as he had done, there to remain, during a month, for public inspection, lord 
Ca°tlemain's Catholique Apology, which contains the fact, and the authori- 
ties on which it is advanced. — The writer is far from claiming inerrancy; 
but he shoulddespise himself, if he, knowingly, published any fa:sehood, or 
nesitated to retract any one that he was proved to have fallen inlo. 

* Milion's prose works, vol. 4. The prose writings of this secretary of 
2 



Address. 



must know, is the genuine cant of a Mar-Preate Independent ; 
the same cant which brought Laud, and Charles I. to the block ; 
the same cant which overthrew the church and state in the 
grand rebellion. But what chiefly concerns my present purpose 
m this, the bishop's twice repeated quotation from Milton, is to 
observe that it breathes the whole persecuting spirit of the 
sixteenth century, and calls for the fines and forfeitures, dungeons 
and halters, and knives, of Elizabeth's reign, against the devoted 
Catholics ; since, it is evident, that the idolatry of Popery, as it 
is termed, exercised in private, cannot be removed without such 
persecuting and sanguinary measures. The same thing is plain 
from the nature of the different legal offences which the Right 
Rev. prelate lays to their charge. In one place, he accuses the 
Catholics of England and Ireland, that is to say, more than a 
quarter of his majesty's European .subjects, of " acknowledging 
the jurisdiction of the Pope, in defiance of the laws, and of the 
allegiance due to their rightful sovereign :" though he well knows, 
that they have abjured the Pope's jurisdiction in all civil and 
temporal cases, which is all that the king, lords and commons 
required of them, in their Acts of 1791 and 1793. Again, the 
prelate describes their opposition to the veto (though equally 

the Long parliament are execrable, for their regicide and anti-prelatic prin- 
ciples, as his poetry is super-excellent for its sublimity and sweetness. Four 
other English authors are brought forward, by the bishops of St. David's, to 
justify that persecution of Catholics, which he recommends. The first of 
these is the Socinian Locke, who will not allow of Catholics being tolera- 
ted, on the demonstrated false pretext, that they cannot tolerate other 
Christians. The true cause was, that his hands being stained by the blood 
of twenty innocent Catholics, who were immolated by the sanguinary 
policy of his master Shaftsbury, in Oates' infamous plot, he was obliged to 
find a pretext for excluding them from the legal toleration, which he stood 
in need of himself. — Bishop Hoadly, who had no religion at all of his own, 
would not allow the Catholics to enjoy theirs, because, he says : " no oaths 
and solemn assurances, no regard to truth, justice, or honor, can restrain 
them." This is the hypocritical plea for intolerance, of a man who was 
in the constant habit of violating all his oaths and engagements to a church 
which had raised him to rank and fortune, and who systematically pursued 
its degradation, into his own anti-Christian Socinianism, by professed deceit 

and treachery, as will be seen in the Letters. Blackstone, being a crown 

lawyer, and writing when the penal laws were in force, could not but de- 
fend them : but, judge as he was, and writing at the above mentioned time, 
he, in the passage following that quoted by Dr. Burgess, expressed a hope, 
that the time " was not distant, when the fears of a Pretender having van- 
ished, and the influence of the Pope becoming feeble, the rigorous edicts 
against the Catholics would be revised," b. iv. c. 4. ; which event, accord- 
ingly, soon took place. As to Burke, the last author whom the bishop 
quotes against Catholic emancipation, it is evident, from his speech at 
Bristol, his letter ro lord Kenmare, and the whole tenor of his conduct, 
that t e was not only a warm friend, but, in some degree, a martyr to it. 



Address. 



xv 



opposed, in the appointment of their respective pastors by all 
Protestant dissenters, who constitute more than another fourth 
part of his majesty's subjects,) as " treasonable by statute" p. 
35. Now, every one knows that the legal punishment of a 
subject, acting in defiance of his allegiance, and contracting the 
guilt of treason, is nothing less than death. Nay, so much bent 
on the persecution of Catholics is this modern bishop, as to 
arraign parliament itself as guilty of a breach of the Constitution* 
by the latter of the above mentioned tolerating Acts ; where he 
says : " If the elective franchise be really inconsistent with the 
Constitutional Statutes of the revolution, it ought to be repealed, 
like all other concessions, that are injurious to loyally and reli- 
gions—Viz adds, " But it does not follow that because parliament 
had been guilty of one act of prodigality, that it should, therefore, 
like a thoughtless and unprincipled spendthrift, plunge itself into 
inextricable ruin," pp. 53, 54. Thus, my lord, though the 
prelate alluded to, after advertising, in his table of contents, A 
CONCLUSION, showing "the means of co-operating with the 
laws for preventing the danger and increase of Popery," when 
he comes to the proper place for inserting it, apologizes for 
deferring its publication, as " being connected with the credit of 
the ecclesiastical establishment," yet, we see as clearly, from the 
substance and drift of the Protestant's Catechism, what his Con- 
clusion is, as if he had actually published it ; namely, he would 
have the whole code of penal laws, with all their incapacities, 
fines, imprisonment, hanging, drawing, and quartering, re-enacted, 
to prevent even the private practice of idolatry ; and he would 
have the bishops, clergy, churchwardens, and constables, em- 
ployed in enforcing them, according to the forms of Inquisition, 
prescribed by the Canons of 1597, 1603, and 1640. 

Before the writer passes from the present subject of loyalty 
and the laws, to others more congenial with his studies, and 
those of the prelate, he wishes to submit to your lordship's 
reflection two or three questions connected with it. First: Is 
it strictly legal, even for a lord of parliament, and is it edifying 
for a bishop, to instruct the public, especially in these days of 
insubordination and commotion, that the reigning king, and the 
two houses of parliament, have acted against the Constitutional 
Statutes, by affording religious relief to a large and loyal portion 
of British subjects ; as king William, George 1. and George II. 
had afforded it to other portions of them ? We all know what 
outcries are continually raised about violating the Constitution, 
and we know what effect these are intended to produce : now, 
if a turbulent populace are made to believe that the present 



xvi 



A ddress. 



legislature has acted illegally and unconstitutionally in some of 
its acts, is there no danger that they may form the same notion 
concerning some of its other acts, which are peculiarly obnoxious 
to them, and that they may rank these among the Fictitious 
Statutes, as this prelate terms the Acts of Parliament of three 
former reigns ? — Secondly : The writer wishes to ask your lord- 
ship, whether or no you think it is for the peace and safety of 
the sister isle, to alarm the bulk of its inhabitants with the threat 
of their being dispossessed of the elective franchise, which they 
have now enjoyed for a quarter of a century ? In like manner, 
is it conducive to this important end, for a person of his lord- 
ship's character and consequence to assure this people, that the 
Pope's jurisdiction, and England's dominion over them, " were 
introduced into Ireland by the mercenary compact of the Pope 
and Henry II." p. 24, " founded on a fiction of the grossest kind, 
the pretended donation of Constantine," p. v. though, by the bye, 
this was never once mentioned or hinted at by either of the 
parties 1 — Lastly : The writer would be glad to be informed by 
your lordship, whether it is for the advantage of the established 
church so highly to extol John Wickliffe, who maintained that 
clergymen ought to have no sort of temporal possessions ? And 
is it for the security of the state to hold up lord Cobham as " a 
great and good man, and the martyr of Protestantism," p. vii.*, 
who was convicted in the King's Bench, and in open parliament, 
of raising an insurrection of twenty thousand men, for the pur- 
pose of killing the king and his brother, and the lords spiritual 
and temporal, and who was executed for the same, merely 
because he was a Wickliffite ? How innocent was colonel 
Despard, compared with sir John Oldcastle, called lord Cobham ! 

The writer has spoken of the object of the publication which 
has lately appeared, under the name of a Rt. Rev. bishop of the 
established church : he now proceeds to say something of its 
contents. 

It professes to be THE PROTESTANT'S CATECHISM. 
From this title, most people will suppose it to be an elementary 
book, for the instruction of Protestants of every description, in the 
doctrine and morality taught by Jesus Christ : but not a word 
can the writer find in it about Christ, or God, or any doctrinal 
matter whatever ; except that, " They, who do not hold the 
worship of the church of Rome to be idolatrous, are not Protes- 
tants, whatever they may profess to be," p. 46. ; which is a 
sentence of excommunication against many of the brightest 

* See Walsingham's Historia Major. Knighton Leicest. Collier's Ec- 
cles. IJist. Stow, &c. 



Address. 



xvii 



lights and chief ornaments of the bishop's own church. Noi 
does this novel Catechism contain any moral or practical lesson ; 
except that, " Every member of parliament's conscience is 
pledged against the Catholic claims ;" and, what has been men- 
tioned before, that as " Popery is idolatrous, it is not to be tolera- 
ted either in public or in private" and that " it must be now 
thought how to remove it," p. 3. Had the Catechism appeared 
without a name, it might be supposed to be a posthumous work 
of lord George Gordon ; but, had its origin been traced to the 
mountains of Wales, it would certainly be attributed to some 
itinerant Jumper, rather than to a successor of St. Dubritius and 
St. David. What, however, chiefly distinguishes The Protestant 
Catechism from other No Popery publications, is, not so much 
the strength of its acrimony, as the boldness of its paradoxes. 
These, for the most part, stand in contradiction to all ancient 
records and modern authors, Protestant as well as Catholic, 
being supported by the bare word of the bishop of St. David's : 
and what is still more extraordinary, they sometimes stand m 
contradiction to the word of the bishop of St. David's himself ; 
resting in this case, on the word of Dr. Thomas Burgess, I 
purpose exhibiting a few of the paradoxes I refer to. 

The great and fundamental paradox of the Right Rev. Cate- 
chist is, that Protestantism subsisted many hundred years before 
Popery ; at the same time that he makes its essence consist, in 
a renunciation of, and opposition to, Popery f for his lordship 
lectures his Protestant pupils in the following manner : " Ques- 
tion. What is Protestantism ? Answer. The abjuration of 
Popery and the exclusion of Papists from all power, ecclesiastical 
and civil." p. 12. " Question. What is Popery ? Answer. The 
religion of the church of Rome, so called because the church of 
Rome is subject to the jurisdiction of the Pope." p. 1 1. " Ques- 
tion. When was this jurisdiction assumed over the whole 
church ? Answer. At the beginning of the seventh century." 
p. 15. The writer does not here refute the various errors of the 
Right Rev. bishop on these heads ; this refutation will be found 
in the following letters ; he barely exhibits one of the bishop's 
leading parade xes. It may be here stated as another very 
favourite paradox of the prelate, since he has maintained it in a 
former work, that, because Venantius Fotunatus, a poet of the 
sixth century, sings, that " the stylus, or writings of St. Paul, 
had run east, west, north, and south, and passed into Britain and 
the remote Thule," and because Theodoret, and author of the 
fifth century, says, that St. Paul brought salvation to the 
islands in the sea," (namely, Malta and Sicily, Acts xxviii.) it 



xviii 



Address. 



follows that the British church was founded by St. Paul ! p. 19.* 

This paradox might be -stated and even granted, for any thing il 
makes in favour of the bishop's object, which is to invalidate the 
supremacy of saint Peter. For it matters not which apostle 
founded this church or that church, while it is evident from the 
words of Christ, in St. Matthew, c. xvi. v. 18, and in other 
texts, and from the concurring testimony of the fathers, and all 
antiquity, that Christ built the whole church on the foundation 
of the apostles and prophets, he himself being the chief corner 
stone, so as still to ground it, next after himself, on the Rock, 
Peter.f This will be found demonstrated in the following work, 
Letter xlvi. A third paradox of the prelatic Catechist is this : 
Having undertaken to prove that " The church of Rome 
was founded by St. Paul," p. 13, no less than the church of 
Britain, he attempts to draw an argument from their different 
discipline in the observance of Easter ; that the latter was " inde- 
pendent" of the former, p. 23 Hence it would follow that St. 
Paul established one discipline, that which the prelate himself 
now follows, at Rome ; and another, " that of the church of 
Ephesus, and the eastern churches, in Britain," p. 17. The 
truth is, his lordship has quite bewildered himself in the ancient 
controversy about the right time of keeping Easter. He wil! 
learn, however, from the following letters, that the British church 
originally agreed with that of Rome, in this, no less than in the 
other points, as the emperor Constantine expressly declares in 
Ins letter on that subject,^ and as farther appears by the Acts ot 
the Council of Aries, which the British bishops, there present, 
joined with the rest in subscribing. And when, after the Saxon 
invasion, the British churches got into a wrong computation, they 
did not follow that of the Asiatic Quarto-decimans, but always 
kept Easter-day on a Sunday, differing from the practice of the 
continent only once in seven years. A fourth paradox of the 
Catechism maker, is, that, admitting, as he does, the existence 
of our christian king, Lucius, in the second century, he, never- 

* The falsity of thi9 inference and the weakness and unfairness of the 
bishop's arguments on the whole subject, have been well exposed by an 
able and learned writer, the Rev. John Lingard, in his Examination of 
Certain Opinions advanced by the Rev. Dr. Burgess, tyc. 1813. Syers, 
Manchester ; Keating & Brown, London 

t The Right Rev. prelate seems to have been forced out of his former 
cavil concerning the difference of gender between Tl-m ^ and Hcrpa in the 
text, Matt. xvi. by a learned colleague of his [Landaff from remote ages 
was a thorn in the side of Menevia] who has shown him that Christ c\id not 
speak Greek but Syriao, and on this occasion, made use of the word Ce 
pkas, Hock, which admits of no variation of genders. 

t Euseb. Vit. Constant. L. iii. c. 19. 



Address. 



XIX 



theless, rejects his conversion by the missionaries of Pope 
Eleutherius, Fugatius and Duvianus, as *' a mere Romish fiction, 
and a monkish fable," p. 23 : notwithstanding both facts rest on 
exactly the same authority, namely, that of all the original 
writers. British, Saxon, English, Roman, and Gallic* A fifth 
paradox of the bishop's, is, that " The British churches were 
Protestant before they were Popish," p. 23 ; " six centuries 
elapsed before Popery had any footing in this island," p. 28 ; 
and that *' the British bishops showed their independence of the 
Pope's authority by rejecting the overtures of Austin, and by 
refusing to acknowledge any authority but that of their own 
metropolitan," p. 24. And yet it is demonstrated that the British 
bishops were present, not only at the Councils of Aries and Nice, 
which acknowledged the Pope's authority, but also at that of 
Sardica in lllyrium, held in 347, f where the right of appeal to 
the Pope in all ecclesiastical causes, from every part of the 
world, was confirmed-! It is equally certain, that in the former 
part of the following century, Pope Celestine sent St. Paladius 
to convert the Scots, St. Patrick to convert the Irish, and St. 
Germanus to reclaim such Britons as had fallen into the Pelagian 
heresy. § Each of these facts is expressly affirmed by a con- 
temporary author of the highest character, St. Prosper ; and 
the last mentioned facts is comformable to the British records, 
which represent this foreign bishop, as exercising high acts of 
jurisdiction in Britain, which he never could have exercised but 
in virtue of the Papal supremacy, of which he and his companion, 
St. Lupus, bishop of Treves, were the delegates ; such as con- 
secrating bishops in different parts of the island, and constituting 
St. Dubritius archbishop of the Right Side of it, or of Wales. If 
But how many other proofs of the dependency of the ancient 

* Nennius' Hist. Briton, c. xviii. Girald. Cambr. De Jur. Menev. P. ii 
Angl. Sac. p. 541. Silvest. Girald. Camb. Descript. c. xviii. The Ancien. 
Register of Landaff, quod Teilo vocatur. Angl. Sacra, vol. ii. Gildas 
Ilistoricus, quoted by Rudborn. Galfrid Monumet. Ven. Bede, L. i. e, 
4. The Saxon Chronicle. Gul. Malm. Antiq. Glaston. Martyr. Rom, 
Raderus, &c. &c. 

t St. Athan. Apolog. 2. See also Usher. % Can. iii. 

§ St. Prosper. " Papa Celestinus Germanum Antisidorensem Episco- 
pum, VICE SUA mittit, et deturbatis haereticis, Britannos ad Catholicam 
(idem dirigit," Chron. ad An. 429. See also Archbish. Usher. De Brit. 
Eccl. Prim. 

IT " Postquam prsedicti Seniores (Germanus et Lupus) Pelagianam haere- 
sim extirpaverant ; Episcopos in pluribus locis Britannia? Insula? consecra- 
verunt. Super omnes autem Britannos dextralis partis Britannia? B Pu- 
britium, summum Doctorem, a Rege et ab omni parochia electum, Archi- 
episcopum consecraverunt." Ex Antiq. Eccl. Landav. Registro. Angl 
Sacr. P. ii. p. 667. 



XX 



Address. 



British church on the See of Rome, has not our episcopal anti- 
quary met with, in his own favorite author and predecessor, 
Giraldus Cambrensis,* especially where the latter gives an 
account of his pleading before the Pope for the Archiepiscopal 
dignity of St. David's, which the latter asserted was formerly 
decorated even with the Pallium, the mark of Papal legatine 
jurisdiction ; till one of his predecessors, Sampson as he asserted, 
flying into Britany, transferred it to Dol ? He maintained, 
however, that, excepting the use of the Pallium, the church of 
St. David possessed the whole metropolitical dignity, and was 
" subject to no other church except that of Rome, and to that 
immediately, "f The modern prelate does but add to the wonder 
of his learned readers by appealing to the conference between 
St. Austin, Pope Gregory's missionary and legate in England, 
and the Welsh bishops, A. D. 502, and to the latters " rejecting 
the overtures" of the former, in proof of their " rejecting the 
Pope's authority," p. 24. For, what were these overtures ? 
They were these three : that they, the Welsh bishops, would 
keep Easter at the right time ; that they would adopt the Roman 
ritual in the administration of baptism ; and that they would 
join with the Roman missionaries in preaching the word of God 
to the Pagan English.^ This last overture demonstrates, that 
neither on the two former points, nor on any other point, and 
least of all on that of the Pope's supremacy, was there, in the 
opinion of St. Austin, any difference, of essential consequence, 
between his doctrine and that of the Welsh bishops. For, if 
there had been such a difference, and especially if they had 
denied the supremacy of his master, the Pope, would he have 
invited, and even pressed them, to join with him in preaching 
the gospel to his new and increasing flock in England ? As 
well may we believe that a faithful shepherd would collect 
together, and turn into his fold, a number of hungry wolves ! It 

• The New Biographical Dictionary divides Silvester Giraldus Cam- 
brensis into two different persons, whereas, it is plain, from this author's 
Description of Wales, p. 882, Edit. Cambden, that these three names be- 
long to one and the same author. 

t " Usque ad Anglorum Regem Henricum I. totam Metropoliticam dig- 
nitatem, praeter usum Pallii, Ecclesia Menevensis obtinuit ; nulli Ecclesiae 
prorsus, nisi Romance tanlum, et illi immediate, sicut nec Ecclesia Scotica, 
subjectionem debens." De Jur. Menev. Ecc. Angl. Sac P. ii. p. 541.- 
The rival See of Landaff bears equal testimony to the supremacy of Rome 
" Sicut Romana Ecclesia excedit dignitatem omnium Ecclesiarum Catho- 
licae fidei, ita Ecclesia ilia Landavia excedit omnes Ecclesias totius dex 
tralis Britannia." Ex Antiq. Regist. Landav. Angl. Sac. P. ii. p. 669 

t ** Ut genti Anglorum una nobiscum praedicetis verbum Domini." Beo. 
Keel. Hist. L. ii. c. 2. 



Address. 



xxi 



is true they then said they would not receive St. Augustin for 
their archbishop :* but neither did he nor the Pope require them 
to do so ; nor is the vindication of the rights of an ancient church, 
at any time, a denial of the Pope's general supremacy. So far 
from this, within two years from the holding of that conference, 
we find Oudoceus, bishop of Landaff, going to Canterbury to 
receive consecration from the same St. Austin, and we find him 
received, on his return into Wales, by the king, princess, clergy 
and people, with the highest honor.f We have, moreover, the 
testimony of the above quoted British register, that the bishops 
of Landaff, from this period, were always subject and obedient 
to the archbishop of Canterbury, who was at all times the Pope's 
legate. The Right Rev. bishop's argument to prove that the 
Irish church was not, anciently, in communion with the church 
of Rome, namely, because it was in communion with the British 
bishops, p. 24, is as great a paradox as any of the above men- 
tioned ; since it has been proved that the British bishops them- 
selves were always in communion with the church of Rome. 
Of the same description are the assertions, that no legate was 
appointed by the Pope in Ireland " before Gillebert, in the twelfth 
century," and that " the Pope's jurisdiction was first introduced 
into Ireland by the mercenary compact of the Pope and Henry 
II." p. 25. To expose the inconsistency of these assertions, 
nothing more is necessary than to consult the Antiquities of 
Usher himself, on whose authority they are said to be grounded. 
This Protestant archbishop then testifies from ancient records, 
which he cites, that, first St. Palladius, and after him St. Patrick, 
was sent into Ireland by Pope Celestine, to convert its inhabi- 
tants from Pagan idolatry ; the former in 431, the latter in 432 ; 
that St. Patrick, " having established the church of Ireland, and 
ordained bishops and priests throughout the whole island, went 
to Rome, in 462, where he procured from Pope Hilary, the con- 
firmation of whatever he had done in Ireland, together with the 
Pallium, and the title of Pope's legate ;"J that in 540 the cele- 
brated St. Finan, of Clonard, having spent seven years at Rome, 
and being consecrated bishop, returned into Ireland, where he 
instituted schools and convents, one of which contained three 
thousand monks. § It appears from the same annalist, that in 
580, the renowned St. Columban passed from Ireland to the 
continent, where he was protected by different bishops and 
princes, for his orthodoxy and piety, and even by the Popes 

* Bed. Eccl. Hist. L. ii. c. 2. 

t Vita Oudocei, quoted by Godwin De Prsesul, and Usher. 

» Usher's Antiq. Index Chronol. § Usher Primord. 



xxii 



Address. 



themselves, with whom he corresponded ; that in 630, a depu- 
tation was sent from Ireland, of learned and holy men, " to the 
fountain of their baptism, like children to their mother,"* namely, 
to the apostolic See of Rome, to consult with it on matters of 
religion ^, that among these was St. Lasrean, who was consecrat- 
ed bishop by Pope Honorius, and appointed his legate in Ire- 
land ;t that in 640, Tomianus, and four other bishops, being still 
anxious about the right observance of Easter, and about the 
Pelagian heresy, wrote to consult Pope Severinus, and that they 
received an answer to their letter from his successors, Pope 
John. — Numerous other testimonies, not only of the communion 
of the church of Ireland, with that of Rome, but also of its ac- 
knowledging the Pope's supremacy, may be collected from Usher, 
Ware, and other Protestant, no less than from the original 
Catholic, writers, down to the very time of Gillebert, bishop ot 
Limerick, whom the Catechist admits to have been the Pope's 
legate in Ireland. This happened, according to Usher, in 1 130, 
twenty-five years before the date of what the Catechist calls 
"the mercenary compact of the Pope and Henry II. by which," 
he says, " the Pope's jurisdiction was first introduced into 
Ireland," and forty years before the latter invaded Ireland ; 
which island, after all, as every child knows, he invaded, not 
as the executor of Pope Adrian's legacy, but as the ally of the 
dethroned king, Dermot. 

• In speaking of the beginning and progress of the religion of our 
own ancestors, the English, it might be expected the Right Rev. 
Catechist would have paid more attention to truth and consis- 
tency than he has done with respect to the foregoing more ob- 
scure histories. This, however, is not the case. But, previous- 
ly to the writer's entering on this particular subject, he wishes 
to observe what is more fully demonstrated in the following 
work, that the Catechist totally misrepresents our apostle, Pope 
Gregory the Great, as having " reprobated the spiritual supre- 
macy," and also " his successor Boniface as being the first Pope 
to assume it," p. 16. In short, the question, at issue, is not con- 
cerning the title, but the power of a head bishop ; which power, 
as it will appear below, no Pope exercised more frequently or 
extensively than " the learned and virtuous St. Gregory," to use 
the prelate's own epithets. His lordship does not deny that our 

* Usher. 

t Gillebert was succeeded in the legatine office by St. Mc\?ajchy, who, by 
special authority, erected the See of Tuam into an archbishooric. Alter 
his death Cardinal Papario was sent by Pope Eugenius III. iitttt Ireland, 
namely, in 1151, with four Palliums for the tour archbishopr.es. So falsa 
is the prelate's account of the origin of tLe Pope's jurisdiction ui Ufeland ! 



Address. 



xxiii 



ancestors, the Anglo-Saxons, were converted to Christianity by 
" the Pope's missionaries," p. 28, namely, by St. Austin and his 
companions, sent hither by the above-mentioned Pope Gregory, 
in 597 ; nor does he contradict the account of our venerable his- 
torian, Bede, who describes the whole jurisdiction and discipline 
of our church, as being regulated by that Pope and his succes 
sors. Still the prelate most paradoxically denies that " the Pope 
ever exercised jurisdiction in England or Ireland, except during 
the four centuries before the Reformation !" p. 1 1 ; and he main- 
tains, in particular, that " the Anglo-Saxon churches differed 
from the church of Rome in their objection to image worship- 
ping, the invocation of saints, transubstantiation, and other er- 
rors," p. 28. Here are two paradoxes to be refuted ; one con- 
cerning the spiritual power, the other concerning the doctrine of 
the See of Rome. VVith respect to the former : is it not a fact, 
my lord, known to every ecclesiastical antiquary, that each one 
of our primates, from St. Austin down to Stigand, exclusively, 
who was deposed soon after the conquest, either went to Rome 
to fetch, or had transmitted to him from Rome, the emblem and 
jurisdiction of legatine authority, by which he held and exerci- 
sed the power of a metropolitan over his suffragan bishops ? An 
original author, Radulph Diceto, exhibits a succinct but clear 
demonstration of this, in a series of all the archbishops, and a 
list of. the different Popes, from whom the former respectively 
received the Pallium. Did not St. Wilfrid, archbishop of York/ 
appeal to the Pope from the uncanonical sequestration of his 
diocese by the primate Theodore ? Did not Offa, the powerful 
Mercian king, engage Pope Adrian to transfer six suffragan 
bishoprics from the See of Canterbury to that of Lichfield, con- 
stituting it, at the same time, an archbishopric ? A hundred 
other instances of the exercise of the Pope's ecclesiastical juris- 
diction in England, previously to the conquest, could be produced, 
if they were wanted. — As to the pretended difference between 
the doctrine of the Anglo-Saxons and the church of Rome, the 
Catechist was bound to inform his readers when it took place ; 
and who were the authors of it ; that is, who first persuaded the 
whole English nation to reject the religion they had been taught 
by- their apostles, Pope Gregory and his missionaries ; and 
whether this change was effected by slow degrees, or all of a 
sudden.* If so absurd a paradox, as the above- mentioned, re- 

* To make some brief confutation of each of the Catechist's alleged dif- 
ferences between the Anglo-Saxon church and that of Rome : He^le testi- 
fies, that when St. Austin and his fellow missionaries preached the gospel 
to king Ethelbert, they carried a cross for their ensign, with a painted pic* 



Address. 



quired a serious refutation, it might be stated thai, in 610, bishop 
Melitus, who afterwards became primate, went to Rome to obtain 
the Pope's confirmation of certain regulations which had been 
made in England, that he subscribed to the Acts of an Episcopal 
Synod, then held in that city, which Acts he brought back with 
him to England,* and that, in 680, St. Wilfrid, going to Rome, 
to prosecute his appeal, was present at a council of one hundred 
and twenty-five Bishops, where, " In the name of all the chur- 
ches in the north part of Britain, Ireland, and the nations of the 
Scots and Picts, he made open profession of the true Catholic 
faith, confirming it also by his subscription.! 

Other paradoxes of the Right Rev. prelate, relating to matters 
of a later date, are these, that Pope Adrian IV. grounded his 
right to give away Ireland on " the forged donation of Constan- 
tine," though he never once alluded to it, but assigned quite 
other grounds for what he did ; and that " the Pope now owes 
the whole of his temporal and spiritual power on the continent, 
to this gross fiction, and the Decretal Epistles," p. v. Alas ! 
what must the learned Catholics of the continent, who were the 
first to detect these literary frauds of the eighth century, and 
to trace them to the place of their birth in Lower Germany, 
think of the literature of this country, when they hear a bishop, 
and a member of our learned societies, telling them that they 
would not acknowledge the Pope to be prince of Rome or head 
of the church, were it not for those spurious pieces ! A similar 
paradox is, that " The Popish bishops and Popish clergy were 
the real authors of the fictitious statutes (Acts of Parliament) of 
Richard II. Henry IV. and Henry V." against the Lollards; 
though they neither did, nor were permitted to interfere in those 
Acts ; and though it is notorious from all contemporary history, 
that, these severe edicts were occasioned by what that anarchical 
faction had done, and threatened to do. They had, under the 
command of Wat Tyler, and John Ball, a Wickliffite priest 

ture of Christ, L. i. c. 25. Will. Malmsb. mentions that, among other 
pious images, preserved at Glastonbury, were those of Christ and his apos- 
tles, made of silver and given by king Ina. De Antiq. Glaston. We 
learn from Archbishop Cuthred's letter to Lullus, successor of St. Boniface, 
bishop and martyr of Mentz, that a Synod of Anglo-Saxon bishops had 
chosen this saint, and St. Gregory, and St. Austin, to be their " patrons and 
intercessors." Inter Epist. Bonif. That our ancestors believed in tran* 
substantiation, is clear, from Osbern's relation of archbishop Odos render- 
ing this visible. An<d. Sac P. ii. p. 82. One of his successors, Lanfrank, 
was the principal defender of this doctrine against Berengarius. It may 
oe added, that the original faith concerning purgatory, the mass, and perhaps 
every other controverted point, can be proved from Bede's Historv alone* 
* Bede, L. ii. c. 4. t Ibid, L. v. c. 20. 



Address. 



actually put to death, by public execution, the lord chancellor, 
the lord treasurer, and the lord chief justice, of England : and 
they had threatened to kill the king, the lords spiritual and tem- 
poral, and all the pen and ink-horn-men, as they called the law- 
yers ; as also to put down all the clergy, except the begging 
friars, and to divide among themselves all their lands and pro- 
perty* Such were the levellers of the fifteenth century, whom 
a modern bishop eulogizes. — The following are theological 
paradoxes, being such as will infallibly non-plus every regular 
student in divinity. 1st. " The apostles were not bishops," p 
15. By the same rule bishops are not priests. — 2dly. " To 
retain the obsolete language of ancient Rome, in prayer, is an 
error" p. 39. — 3dly. The Irish were guilty of " a heresy of dis- 
ciplme /" p 60. 

But the political paradoxes, my lord, of this new Catechism 
are still more inexplicable than the theological ones. The first 
of them, which 1 shall mention, is contained in the following 
question and answer. " Q. What is it excludes Pagans, Jews, 
and Mahometans from our churches, and from parliament ? A. 
Religion," p. 44. — Your lordship will permit the writer to observe, 
in the first place, that it is impossible either for the simple cate- 
chumens of Wales, or even for the learned reviewers of England, 
to gather from this passage, whether the Rt. Rev. prelate means 
to say, that it is the religion of Pagans, Jews, and Turks, or that 
of Protestants, which excludes the former from parliament, for 
example : nevertheless, the passage, taken either way, is per- 
fectly paradoxical. For can that prelate, or any one else, cite 
a precept of the Vedam, or the Talmud, or the Koran, which 
prohibits its respective votaries from sitting and voting in the 
British parliament, if they can get entrance into it ? Or can he 
show any thing in Protestantism (which he defines to be " The 
abjuration of Popery, and the exclusion of Papists from all power, 
ecclesiastical or civil") that prevents a man, who publicly pro- 
claims Mahomet, or who publicly denies Jesus Christ, or who 
publicly worships the obscene and blood-stained idol Juggernaut, 
from being a member of either house of the legislature ? No, 
my lord, there is no one article in any one of those religions, if 
they may be called so, which excludes them from our parliament ; 
the only condition for rendering them fit and worthy to enter 
into it, and becoming legislators, being their calling God to vrit- 
ness, that " there is no trans ubstantiation in the mass," and that 

• Fist. Major T. Walsingham, Knighton De Event. Angl. Collier's Eccl. 
Hist. 

I 



Address. 



" the worship of the Virgin Mary and the saints, as practised in 
the church of Rome, (upon both which points the worshippers of 
Juggernaut and English Protestants are, for the most part, equally 
well instructed,) are Idolatrous 1 A second political para- 
dox in thts Catechism is, that " the inviolable covenants of the 
two unions show the injustice and unconstitutional nature of the 
Roman Catholic claims," p. viii. This, my lord, is equally 
incomprehensible ; since the act of union with Scotland neither 
mentions these claims, nor alludes to them ; and since that of 
the union with Ireland expressly admits the principle of their 
being conceded, and prepares the minds of men for their actual 
concession ; as it is therein enacted, that " Members of the 
united parliament shall take and subscribe the usual oaths and 
declarations UNTIL THE SAID PARLIAMENT SHALL 

OTHERWISE PROVIDE." Art. IV. The last ol these 

paradoxes, which the writer will extract from the incomprenen- 
sible Catechism, is the following. It teaches, at page 35, that 
" Not to consent to the veto, is not to acknowledge the king's 
supremacy, which it is treasonable, by statute, to oppose." And 
immediately after, at p. 36, it teaches that " the veto, or the king's 
nomination, is nnprotestant and illegal : to which the bishop 
adds, in the words of his friend, Mr. Sharp ; " it is highly im- 
proper and even illegal for the crown of England to accept the 
power of the proposed veto ; or to have any concern in the appoint 
ment of unreformed bishops," p. 56. Can any one, my lorJ, 
reconcile these opposite doctrines ? To the plain sense of the 
writer it appears, that if it be illegal for his majesty to accept of 
the oeto, it would be criminal in the Catholics to offer it to him ; 
so far from its being treasonable to refuse giving it ! 

My Lord B.shop, 

The wise man has said, in the Sacred Text, of making many 
books there is no end, Eccles. xii. 12. ; and we are certain, from 
reason and experience, that, least of all, will there be an end of 
making books, and disputing on subjects of religion, with respect 
to those who have no fixed rule, or none but a false one, for 
deciding on religious controversies, or who suffer worldly interest, 
pride, or the prejudices of education, to take place of the sin- 
cerity, humility and piety, which ought to guide them in a matter 
of such infinite moment. The writer trusts that, in the first part 
of the following Letters, he has shown the rule appointed by 
Christ, for clearly discerning the truths he has revealed, and 
which conducts to the same end , that he has, in his second part, 
cleaily pomted out Christ's true church, which cannot but teach 



Address. 



xxv ii 



his true doctrine. With men of good will who follow either of 
these ways in the uprightness and fervour of their souls, a satis- 
factory end to their religious discussions and doubts will quickly 
be found. But who can subdue or soften the above mentioned 
passions and prejudices 1 No one, certainly, but God alone ; 
and, as the greater part of mankind is notoriously under their 
influence, the writer is so far from expecting to make these 
persons proselytes to his demonstrations, that he has prepared 
his mind for the opposition and obloquy which he is sure to 
experience from them. He is aware, that most statesmen, and 
other great personages, regard religion merely as a political 
engine for managing the population, and therefore wish to keep 
one as well as the other as quiet as possible. On this principle, 
had they been counsellors to king Ethelbert, they would have 
persuaded him to banish St. Austin, and to continue the worship 
of Thor-and Woden. The multitude, in this age of infidelity 
and dissipation, nauseate religious inquiries and instructions ; 
and, when they must hear them, like the Jews of old ; they say 
to the seer, see not ; and to the prophet, prophesy not to us right 
things : speak unions smooth, things ; prophesy deceits, Isai. xxx. 
10. The critics and reviewers are, for the most part, as smooth,, 
in this respect, as the prophets : if they lead the public opinion 
in matters of less consequence, they follow it in those of greater. 
— But whatever excuse there may be for the inconsistency of 
other men, in religious matters, there would, evidently, be none 
for persons of your lordship's and the writer's profession and 
situation, should they, for their temporal advantage, or their 
prejudices, mislead others in a matter of eternal consequence. 
Such conduct would be hypocritical, and doubly perfidious and 
ruinous. It would be perfidious to the individuals so misguided, 
and to the church or sect which they profess to serve ; since 
nothing can injure that so much, as the appearance of insincerity 
and human passions in its official defenders. Accordingly it 
will be seen, in the following work, that the most fruitful source 
of conversions to the Catholic church, are the detected calumnies 
and misrepresentations of her bitterest enemies. Such conduct 
would also be utterly ruinous ; first, to its immediate victims ; 
and secondly, to the persons of your lordship's and the writer's 
profession and character. In fact, my lord, if, as Christ assures 
us, at the great day of universal trial, some of the arraigned will 
rise up in judgment against others, and condemn them for their 
peculiar guilt, Matt. xii. 41.; how heavy a condemnation will 
poor bewildered souls call down upon those faithless guides who 
have led them astray ! Or rather, how severe a vengeance wril 



xxviii 



Address. 



the Good Shepherd himself (then also the Judge of the living 

and the dead) who hath laid down his life for his sheep, take of 
those hirelings, who have not only left his sheep to be caught and 
scattered by the wolf but have themselves killed and destroyed 
them ! John x. 

For all these important motives, let us, my lord, dismiss every 
selfish interest, human respect, and prejudice from our minds, 
in the discussion of religious subjects,, and follow truth, whither- 
soever she leads us, with the utmost sincerity and ardour of our 
souls. The writer of this, for his part, disgusted, as he is, at 
seeing the most serious and sacred of all subjects become a 
mere field of exercise for the talents, the learning, and the pas- 
sions of different writers, and averse as he is, from taking a part 
in such contests, nevertheless holds himself bound, not only to 
render an account of the hope that is in him, to every one who 
asketh it of him, in the sincerity of an upright heart, but also to 
yield the palm to your lordship thankfully and publicly, should 
you be able to prove (not, however, by extravagant and unsup* 
ported assertions, but by sound and convincing theological argu 
ments) that the rule of faith, which he maintains, is not the on* 
appointed by Christ and his apostles, for guiding Christians 
into all truth ; or that the church to which he adheres, has not 
exclusively those marks of the true church, which your lordship 
ascribes to it, in the creeds you repeat, equally with the writer. 
Until one or other of these points is proved, he will hold himself 
bound to stick close both to the rule and the church, in spite of 
calumny, misrepresentation, ridicule, clamour, and persecution, 
and to maintain, in opposition to your lordship, that there is no 
just cause for either making or continuing any penal laws against 
the professors of the original faith. 

The writer has the honour to remain, my lord, 
Your lordship's obedient servant, 

J M. D. D. 

W~ ,May 3, 1818. 



THE END 

OF 

RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY. 



LETTER I. 

From JAMES BROWN, Esq. to the Rev. J. M. D. D. F. S. A* 



INTRODUCTION. 

New Cottage, near Cressage, Salop, Oct. 13, 1801. 
Reverend Sir, 

I SHOULD need an ample apology for the liberty I take, in 
thus addressing you without, having the honour of your acquaint- 
ance, and still more for the heavy task I am endeavouring to 
impose upon you, if I did not consider your public character, as 
a pastor of your religion, and as a writer in defence of it, and 
likewise your personal character for benevolence, which has 
been described to me by a gentleman of your communion, Mr. J. 
C — ne, who is well acquainted with us both. Having mention- 
ed this, I need only add, that I write to you in the name of a 
society of serious and worthy Christians, in different persua- 
sions, to which I myself belong, who are as desirous as I am, 
to receive satisfaction from you, on certain doubts, which your 
late work, in answer to Dr. Sturges, has suggested to us.* 

However, in making this request of our society to you, it seems 
proper, Reverend sir, that I should bring you acquainted with 
the nature of it, by way of convincing you, that it is not unwonhy 
of the attention, which I am desirous you should pay to it. We 
consist then of above twenty persons, including the ladies, who, 
living at some distance from any considerable town, meet togeth- 
er once a week, generally at my habitation of New Cottage, not 
so much for our amusement and refection, as for the improve- 
ment of our minds, by reading the best publications of the day, 
which I can procure from my London bookseller, and sometimes 
an original essay written by one of the company. 

• Letters to a Prebendary, in answer to Reflections on Popery, by the 
Rev. Dr. Sturges, Prebendary and Chancellor of Winchester. 



so 



Letter I. 



I have signified that many of us are of different religious 
persuasions : this will be seen more distinctly from the fol- 
lowing account of our members. Among these I must men- 
tion, in the first place, our above named learned and worthy rec- 
tor, Dr. Carey. He is, of course, of the church of* England ; 
but like most others of his learned and dignified brethren, in 
these times, he is of that free, and as it is called, liberal turn of 
mind, as to explain away the mysteries and a great many of its 
other articles, which, in my younger days, were considered es- 
sential to it. Mr. and Mrs. Topham, are Methodists of the Pre- 
destinarian and Antinomian class, while Mr. and Mrs. Askew 
are mitigated Arminian Methodists, of Wesley's connection. 
Mr. and Mrs. Rankin are honest Quakers. Mr. Barker and his 
children term themselves Rational Dssenters, being of the old 
Presbyterian lineage, which is now almost universally gone into 
Socinianism. I, for my part, glory in being a stanch member of 
our happy establishment, which has kept the golden mean among 
the contending sects, and which I arn fully persuaded, approach- 
es nearer to the purity of the apostolic church, than any other 
which has existed since the age of it. Mrs. Brown professes 
an equal attachment to the church ; yet, being of an inquisitive 
and ardent mind, she cannot refrain from frequenting the meet- 
ings, and even supporting the missions of those self-created apos 
ties, who are undermining this church on every side, and who 
are no where more active than in our sequestered valley. 

With these differences among us, on the most interesting of 
all subjects, we cannot help having frequent religious controver- 
sies : but reason and charity enable us to manage these without 
any breach of either good manners or good will to each other. 
Indeed, I believe that we are, one and all, possessed of an un- 
feigned respect and cordial love for Christians of every descrip- 
tion, one only excepted. Must I name it on the" present occa- 
sion ? — Yes, I must ; in order to fulfil my commission in a prop- 
er manner. It is then the church that you, Rev. sir, belong to ; 
which, if any credit is due to the eminent divines, whose works 
we are in the habit of reading, and more particularly to the illus- 
trious bishop Porteus, in his celebrated and standing work, call- 
ed A BRIEF CONFUTATION OF THE ERRORS OF THE 
CHURCH OF ROME, extracted from archbishop Seeker's V. 
SERMONS AGAINST POPERY,* is such a mass of absur- 

* The Norrisian professor of divinity, in the university of Cambridge, 
speaking of this work, says, "The refutation of the Popish errors is now 
reduced into a small compass by archhishop Seeker and bishop Porteus." 
—Lectures in Divinity, Vol. IV. p. 71. 



Letter I. 



31 



dity, bigotry, superstition, idolatry, and immorality, tnat, to say 
we respect and love those who obstinately adhere to it, as we 
do other Christians, would seem a compromise of reason, Scrip- 
ture, and virtuous feeling. 

And yet even of this church, we have formed a less revolting 
idea, in some particulars, than we did formerly. This has hap- 
pened, from our having just read over your controversial work 
against Dr. Sturges, called LETTERS TO A PREBENDA- 
RY, to which our attention was directed by the notice taker/ of 
it in the houses of parliament, and particularly by the very un- 
expected compliment paid to it, by that ornament of our church, 
bishop Horsley. We admit then (at least I, for my part, admit) 
thai you have refuted the most odious of the charges brought 
against your religion, namely, that it is, necessarily, and, upon 
principle, intolerant and sanguinary, requiring its members to 
persecute, with fire and sword, all persons of a different creed 
from their own, when this is in their power. You have also 
proved that Papists may be good subjects to a Protestant sove- 
reign ; and you have shown, by an interesting historical detail, 
that the Roman Catholics of this kingdom have been conspicu- 
ous for their loyalty, from the time of Elizabeth, down to the 
present time. Still most of the absurd and anti-Scriptural doc- 
trines and practices, alluded to above, relating to the worship of 
saints and images, to transubstantiation and the half communion, 
to purgatory, and shutting up the Bible, with others of the same 
nature, you have not, to my recollection, so much as attempted 
to defend. In a word, 1 write to you, Rev. sir, on the present 
occasion, in the name 01 our respectable society, to ask you 
whether you fairly give up these doctrines and practices of Po- 
pery, as untenable, or otherwise, whether you will condescend 
to interchange a few letters with me on the subject of them, for 
the satisfaction of me and my friends, and with the sole view of 
mutually discovering and communicating religious truths. We 
remark that you say, in your first letter to Dr. Sturges : " Should 
1 have occasion to make another reply to you, I will try if it be 
not possible to put the whole question at issue between us, into 
such a shape as shall remove the danger of irritation on both 
sides, and still enable us, if we are mutually so disposed, to 
agree together in the acknowledgment of the same religious 
truths." If you still think that this is possible, for God's sake 
and your neighbours' sake, delay not to undertake it. The plan 
embraces every advantage we wish for, and excludes every evil 
we deprecate. You sahll manage the discussion in your own 
•way, and we will give you as little interruption as possible. — 



32 



Essay I. 



Two of the essays above alluded to, with which our worthy 
rector lately furnished us, I, with your permission, enclose, 
to convince you that genius and sacred literature are cultivated 
round the Wrekii , and on the banks of the Severn. 

1 remain, Rev. Sir, with great respect, 

Your faithful and obedient servant, 

JAMES BROWN. 

ESSAY I 

OAT THE EXISTENCE OF GOD, AND OF NATURAL 
RELIGION. 

BY THE REV. SAMUEL CAREY, LL. D. 

FORESEEING that my health will not permit me, for a 
considerable time, to meet my respected friends at New Cot- 
tage, 1 comply with the request,, which several Of them have 
made me, in sending them in wriiing, my ideas on the two 
noblest subjects which can occupy the mird of man ; the exis- 
tence of God, and the truth of Christianity. In doing this, I 
profess not to make new discoveries, but barely to st?*e certain 
arguments, which I collected in my youth, from the learned 
Hugo Grotius, our judicious Clark, and other advocates of natural 
and revealed religion. I offer no apology for adopting the words 
of Scripture, in arguing with persons who are supposed not to 
admit its authority, when these express my meaning as fully as 
any others can do. 

The first argument for the existence of God, is thus express- 
ed by the royal prophet ; Know ye that the Lord he is God i it 
is he that hath made us, not we ourselves. Ps. c. 3. In fact, 
when i ask myself that question, which every reflecting man 
must sometimes ask himself : How came 1 into this state of ex- 
istence ? Who has bestowed upon me the being which I enjoy ? I 
am forced to answer : It is not I that made myself; and each of 
my forefathers, if asked the same question, must have returned 
the same answer. In like manner, if I interrogate the several 
beings with which I am surrounded, the earth, the air, the water, 
the stars, the moon, the sun, each of them, as an ancient father 
says, will answer me, in its turn : It was not I that made you ; 
1, like you, am a creature of yesterday, as incapable of giving ex- 
istence to you, as I am of giving it to myself In short, however 
often each of us repeats the question : How came I hither ? Who 
has made me what I am? we shall never find a rational answer 



Essay I. 



33 



to them, till we come to acknowledge that there is an eternal, 
necessary self-existent Being, the author of all contingent beings, 
which is no other than GOD- It is this necessity of being, this 
self -existence, which constitutes the nature of God, and from 
which all his other perfections flow. Hence when he deigned 
to reveal himself, on the flaming mountain of Horeb, to the holy 
legislator of his chosen people, being asked by this prophet, what 
was his proper name? he answered: I AM THAT I AM. 
Exod. iii. 14. This is as much as to say : / alone exist of my- 
self : all others are created beings, which exist by my will. 

From this attribute of self existence, all the other perfections 
of the Diety, eternity, immensity, omnipotence, omniscience, 
holiness, justice, mercy, and bounty, each in an infinite degree, 
necessarily flow, because there is nothing to limit his existence 
and attributes, and because whatever perfection is found in any 
created being, must, like its existence, have been derived from 
this universal source. 

This proof of the existence of God, though demonstrative and 
self-evident to reflecting beings, is, nevertheless, we have rea- 
son to'fear, lost on a great proportion of our fellow creatures ; 
because they hardly reflect at all ; or at least, never consider, 
who made them, ox what they were made for ; but that other proof, 
which results from the magnificence, the beauty, and the harmony 
of the creation, as it falls under the senses, so it cannot be 
thought to escape the attention of the most stupid or savage of 
rational beings. The starry heavens, the fulminating clouds, 
the boundless ocean, the variegated earth, the organized human 
body, all these, and many other phenomena of nature, must 
strike the mind of the untutored savage, no less than that of the 
studious philosopher, with a conviction that there is an infinitely 
powerful, wise and bountiful Being, who is the author of these 
things ; though, doubtless, the latter, in proportion as he sees 
more clearly and extensively than the former, the properties and 
economy of different parts of the creation, possesses a stronger 
physical evidence, as it is called, of the existence of the great 
Creator. In fact, if the Pagan physician, Galen,* from the 
imperfect knowledge which he possessed of the structure of the 
human body, found himself compelled to acknowledge the exis- 
tence of an infinitely wise and benificent Being, to make it such 
as it is, what would he not have said, had he been acquainted 
with the circulation of the blood, and the uses and harmony ot 
the arteries, veins, and lacteals ! If the philosophical Orator, 
Tully, discovered and enlarged on the same truth, from the little 



De Usu Partium. 



34 



Essay I. 



knowledge of astronomy which he possessed,* what strains of 

eloquence would he not have poured forth upon it, bad he been 
acquainted with the discoveries of Galileo and Newton, relative 
,o the magnitude and distances of the stars, the motions of the 
planets and comets ! Yes, all nature proclaims that there is a 
Being, who is wise in heart and mighty in strength : who doth great 
things and past finding out ; yea, wonders without number : — who 
strelchelh out the north over the empty places^ and hangeth the 
earth upon nothing. — The pillars of heaven tremble and are aston- 
ished at his reproof. — Lo ! these are a part of his ways ; but hoio 
little a portion i-s heard of him ! The thunder of his power who 
can understand ! Job. ix. — xxvi. 

The proofs, however, of God's existence, which can least be 
evaded, are those which come immediately home to a man's 
own heart ; convincing him, with the same evidence he has of 
his own existence, that there is an all-seeing, infinitely just, and 
infinitely bountiful Master above, who is witness of all his ac- 
tions and words, and of his very thoughts. For whence arises 
the heart-felt pleasure which the good man feels on resisting a 
secret temptation to sin, or in performing an act of beneficence, 
though in the utmost secrecy ? Why does he raise his counte- 
nance to heaven, with devotion, and why is he then prepared to 
meet death with cheerful hope, unless it be that his conscience 
tells him of a munificent rewarder of virtue, the spectator of what 
he does ? And why does the most hardened sinner, tremble and 
falter in his limbs, and at his heart, when he commits his mosf 
secret sins of theft, vengeance, or impurity ? Why, especially 
does he sink into agonies or horror and despair at the approac> 
of death, unless it be that he is deeply convinced of the constan* 
presence of an all-seeing witness, and of an infinitely holy, pow 
erful, and just Judge, into whose hands it is a terrible thing to fall 
— In vain does he say : Darkness encompasseth me and the wall 
cover me : no one seeth : of whom am T afraid ? — for his conscience 
tells him that, The eyes of the Lord are. far brighter than the sun 
beholding round about all the ways of men. Eccles. xxiii. 26, 29 

This last argument, in particular, is so obvious and convinc 
ing, that I cannot bring myself to believe there ever was a hu 
man being, of sound sense, who was really an Atheist. Thos* 
persons who have tried to work themselves into a persuasion 
that there is no God, will generally be found, both in anciem 
and modern times, to be of the most profligate manners, who, 
dreading to meet him as their Judge, try to persuade themselves 
that he does not exist. This has been observed by St. Austin, 



* De Natura Deorum, t ii. 



Essay II. 



35 



who says : " No man denies the existence of God, but such a one 
whose interest it-is that there should be. no God." Yet even 
they who pretend to disbelieve the existence of a Supreme Be- 
ing, in the broad day-light, and among their profligate compa- 
nions, in the darkness and solitude of the night, and, still more, 
under the apprehension of death, fail not to confess it ; as Se- 
neca, 1 think, has somewhere observed.* 

A son heareth his father, and a servant his master, says the 
prophet Malachi. If then I be a father, where is mine honour ? 
and if I be a master, where is my fear ? saith the Lord of Hosts, 
i. 6. In a word : it is impossible to believe in the existence of 
a Supreme Being, our Creator, our Lord, and our Judge, with- 
out being conscious, at the same time, of our obligation to wor- 
ship him exteriorly and interiorly, to fear him, to love him, and 
to obey him. This constitutes natural religion : by the observ- 
ance of which the ancient patriarchs, together with Melchise- 
dec, Job, and, we trust, very many other virtuous and religious 
persons of different ages and countries, have been acceptable to 
God, in this life, and have attained to everlasting bliss, in the 
other ; still we must confess, with deep sorrow, that the num- 
ber of such persons has been small, compared with those of eve- 
ry age and nation, who, as St. Paul says, When they knew God, 
glorifed him not as God; neither were they thankful, but became 
vain in their imaginations ; and their foolish hearts were dark- 
ened ; — who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped 
and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for 
ever more, Rom. i. 21, 25. 

SAMUEL CAREY. 



ESSAY II. 

ON THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 

BY THE REV. SAMUEL CARE V, LL. D. 

THOUGH the light of nature is abundantly sufficient, as I 
trust I have shown in my former essay, to prove the existence 
of God, and the duty of worshipping and serving him, yet this 
was not the only light that was communicated to mankind in the 

* It is proper here to observe, that a large proportion of the boasting 
Atheists who signalized their impiety during the late French revolution, 
when they came to die, acknowledged thai their irreligion had been af- 
fected, and that they never doubted, in their hearts, of the existence ot 
God anH the truths of Christianity. Among these were Boulanger, La 
Metrie, Coliot d'Herbois, Egalite duke of Orleans, Sec. 



36 



Essay 11. 



fir3t ages of th§ world concerning these matters, since maiy 

things relating to them were revealed by God to the patriarchs, 
and, through them, to their contemporaries and descendants. 
At length this knowledge was almost universally obliterated 
from the minds of men, and the light of reason itself was so 
clouded by the boundless indulgence of their passions, that they 
seemed, every where, sunk almost to a level with the brute cre- 
ation. Even the most polished nations, the Greeks and the 
Romans, blushed not at unnatural lusts, and boasted of the most 
horrid cruelties. Plutarch describes the celebrated Grecian 
sages, Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Cebes, &c. as indulging free- 
ly in the former* and every one knows that the chief amusement 
of the Roman people, was to behold their fellow creatures mur- 
dering one another in the amphitheatres, sometimes by hundreds 
and thousands at a time. But the depravity and impiety of the 
ancient Pagans, and I may say the same of those of modern 
times, appears chiefly in their religious doctrines and worship. 
What an absurd and disgusting rabble of pretended deities, mark- 
ed with every crime that disgraces the worst of mortals, lust, 
envy, hatred and cruelty, did not the above named refined nations 
worship, and that, in several instances, by the imitation of their 
crimes ! Plato allows of drunkenness in honour of the gods : 
Aristotle admits of indecent representations of them. How many 
temples were every where erected, and prostitutes consecra- 
ted to the worship of Venus ? f And how generally were human 
sacrices offered up in honour of Moloch, Saturn, Thor, Diana, 
Woden, and other pretended gods, or rather real demons, by al- 
most every Pagan nation, Greek and barbarian, and among the 
rest by the ancient Britons, inhabitants of this island ! It is 
true, some few sages of antiquity, by listening to the dictates of 
nature and reason, saw into the absurdity-of the popular religion, 
and discovered the existence and attributes of the true God ; but 
then how unsteady and imperfect was their belief, even in this 
point ! and when they knew God, they did nut glorify him as God, 
nor give him thanks, but became vain in (heir thoughts. Rom. i. 
21. In short, they were so bewildered on the whole subject 
of religion, that Socrates, the wisest of them all, declared it 
" impossible for men to discover this, unless the Deity himselt 
deigned to reveal it to them. "J Indeed it was an effort of mercy, 

* De Isid et. Osirid. Even the refined Cicero and Virgil did not blush 
at these intamies. 

1 Strabo tells us, that there were a thousand prostitutes attached to the 
temple of Venus at Corinth. The Athenians attributed the preservation 
of their city to the prayers of its prostitutes j Plato Dialog. Alcibiad. 



Essay II. 



37 



worthy the great and good God, to make such a revelation ot 
himself, and of his acceptable worship, to poor, benighted, and 
degraded man. This he did, first, in favour of a poor, afflicted 
captive tribe on the banks of the Nile, the Israelites, whom he 
led from thence into the country of their ancestors, and raised 
up to be a powerful nation, by a series of astonishing miracles, 
instructing and confirming them in the knowledge and worship 
of himself by his different prophets. He afterwards did the 
same thing in favour of all the people of the earth, and to a far 
greater extent, by the promised Messiah, and his apostles. It is 
to this latter divine legation I shall here confiire my arguments : 
though indeed, the one confirms the other ; since Christ, and the 
apostles continually bear testimony to the mission of Moses. 

All history, then, and tradition prove that in the reign of Tibe- 
rius, the second Roman emperor after Julius Caesar, an extraor- 
dinary personage, Jesus Christ, appeared in Palestine, teaching 
a new system of religion and morality, far more sublime and 
perfect than any which the Pagan philosophers, or even than 
the Hebrew prophets, had inculcated. He confirmed the truths 
of natural religion and of the Mosaic revelation ; but then he 
vastly extended their sphere, by the communication of many 
heavenly mysteries, concerning the nature of the one true God, 
his economy in redeeming man by his own vicarious sufferings, 
the restoration and future immortality of our bodies, and the final 
decisive trial we are to undergo before him, our destined Judge. 
He enforced the obligation of loving our heavenly Father, above 
all things, of praying to him continually, and of referring all our 
thoughts, words, and actions to his divine honour. He insisted 
on the necessity of denying, not one or other of our passions, as 
the philosophers had done, who, as Tertullian says, drove out 
one nail with another ; but the whole collection of them, disor- 
derly arid vitiated as they are, since the fall of our first parent. 
In opposition to our innate avarice, pride, and love of pleasure ; 
he opened his mission by teaching that, blessed are the poor in 
spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are they t ho f mourn, fyc. 
With respect to our fellow creatures; teaching, as "he did, every 
virtue, he singled out fraternal charity for his peculiar and char- 
acteristic precept ; requiring that his disciples should love one 
another as they love themselves, and even as he himself has 
loved them ; he who laid down his life for them ! and he ex- 
tended the obligation of this precept to our enemies, equally with 
our friends. 

Nor was the morality of Jesus a mere speculative system of 
precepts, like the systems of the pnilosophers : it was of a prac- 



38 



Essay II 



tical nature, and he himself confirmed, by h!s example, every 

virtue which he inculcated, and more particularly the hardest 
of all others to reduce to practice, the love of our enemies. 
Christ had gone about, as the Sacred Text expresses it, doing 
good to all, Acts x. 38. and evil to no one. He had cured the 
"sick of Judea and the neighbouring countries, had given sight 
to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and even life to the dead ; but 
above all things, he had elightened the minds of his hearers with 
the knowledge of pure and sublime truths, capable of leading 
them to present and future hapiness ; yet was he every where 
calumniated and persecuted, till at length, his inveterate enemies 
fulfilled their malice against him by nailing him to a cross, there- 
on to expire, by lengthened torments. Not content with this, 
they came before his gibbet, deriding him in his agony with in- 
sulting words and gestures. What, now, is the return which 
the author of Christianity makes for such unexampled barbarity ? 
He excuses the authors of it ! He prays for them ! Father, forgive 
them : for they know not what they do .' Luke xxiii. 34. No wonder 
this proof of supernatural charity should have staggered the most 
hardened infidels ; one of whom confesses that, "if Socrates has 
died like a philosopher, Jesus alone has" died like a God !"* The 
precepts and the example of the master have not been lost upon 
his disciples. — These have ever been distinguished by their 
practice of virtue, and, particularly, by their charity and forgive- 
ness of injuries. The first of them who laid down his life for 
Christ, St. Stephen, while the Jews were stoning him to death, 
prayed thus, with his last voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their 
eharge ! Acts vii. 59. 

Having considered the several systems of paganism, which have 
prevailed, and that still prevail, in different parts of the world, 
both as to belief and practice, together with the speculations oi 
the wisest infidel philosophers concerning them ; and having 
contemplated, on the other hand, the doctrine of the New Tes- 
tament on both of them, namely, theory and practice, I would ask 
any candid believer, where he thought Jesus Christ could have 
acquired the idea of so sublime, so pure, so efficacious a religion 
as Christianity is, especially when compared with the others 
above alluded to ? Could he have acquired it in the workshop 
of a poor artisan of Nazareth, or among the fishermen of the lake 
of Genezareth ? Then, how could he and his poor unlettered 
apostles succeed in propagating this religion, as they did through- 
out the world in opposition to all the talents and power of phi* 



Rousseau Emile. 



Essay 71. 



39 



'osophers and princes, and all the passions of all mankind ? No 
other answers can be given to these questions, than that the re- 
ligion itself has been divinely revealed, and that it has been 
divinely assisted, in its progress throughout the world. 

In addition to this internal evidence of Christianity, as it is 
called, there are external proofs, which must not be passed over. 
Christ, on various occasions, appealed to the miracles which he 
wrought, in confirmation of his doctrine and mission ; miracles 
public and indisputable, which, from the testimony of Pilate 
himself, were placed on the records of the Roman empire,* and 
which were not denied by the most determined enemies of 
Christianity, such as Celsus, Porphyrins, and Julian, the apostate. 
Among these miracles, there is one of so extraordinary a nature, 
as to render it quite unnecessary to mention any others, and 
which, therefore, is always appealed to by the apostles, as the 
grand proof of the gospel they preached : I mean the resurrection 
of Christ from the dead ; to which must be added its circumstan 
ces, namely, that he raised himself to life by his own power 
without the intervention of any living person ; and that he did 
this in conformity with his prediction, at the time, which he had 
appointed for this event, and in defiance of the efforts of his ene- 
mies, to detain his body in the sepulchre. To elude the evidence 
resulting from this unexampled prodigy, one or other of the 
following assertions must be maintained, either that the disciples 
were deceived in believing him to be risen from the dead, or that 
they combine to deceive the world into a belief of that imposition. 
— Now it cannot be credited, that they themselves were deceived 
in this matter, being many in number, and having the testimony 
of their eyes, in seeing their master repeatedly, during forty 
days ; of their ears, in hearing his voice ; and one, the most 
incredulous among them of his feeling in touching his person 
and probing his wounds ; nor can it be believed that they con 
spired to propagate an unavailing falsehood of this nature 
throughout the nations of the earth, namely, that a person, put 
to death in Judea, had risen again to life, without any prospect 
to themselves for this world, but that of persecution, torments, 
and a cruel death, which they successively endured, as did their 
numerous disciples after them, in testimony of this fact ; or, for 
the other world, bur. the vengeance of the God of truth. 

Next to the miracles, wrought by Christ, is the fulfilment of 
the ancient prophecies. concerning him, in proof of the religion 
aught by him. To mention a few of these ; he was born just 
•fler the sceptre had departed from the tribe of Juda, Gen. xl^'?, 



•Tertul. in Apolog. 



40 



Essay II. 



10. ; at the end of seventy-two weeks of years from trie restora- 
tion of Jerusalem. Dan. ix. 24 ; while the second temple of Je« 
rusalem was in being, Hagg. ii. 7. He was bora in Bethlehem, 
Mic. v. 2. ; worked the identical miracles foretold of him, Isai 
xxxv. 5. He was sold by his perfidious disciple for thirty pieces 
of silver, which were laid out in the purchase of a potter's field, 
Zach. xi. 13. He was scourged, spit, upon, Isai. 1. 6. ; placed 
among malefactors, Isai. xxxiii. 12. His hands and feet were 
transfixed with nails, Ps. xxii. 16. ; and his side was opened with 
a spear, Zach. xii. 1 0. Finally, he died, was buried with honour, 
Isai. liii. 9. ; and rose again to life without experiencing corrup- 
tion. Ps. xvi. 10. The sworn enemies of Christ, the Jews, were, 
during many hundred, years before his coming, and still are in 
possession of the Scriptures, containing these and many other 
predictions concerning him, which were strictly fulfilled. 

,The very existence, and, other circumstances respecting this 
extraordinary people, the Jews, are so many arguments in proof 
of Christianity. They have now subsisted, as a distinct people, 
for more than four thousand years, during which they have again 
and again been subdued, harassed, and almost extirpated. 
Their mighty conquerors, the Philistines, the Assyricns, the 
Persians, the Macedonians, the Syrians, and the Romans, have, 
in their turns, ceased to exist and can nowhere be found as dis- 
tinct nations : while the Jews exist in great numbers, and are 
known in every part of the world. How can this be accounted 
for ? Why has God preserved them alone, amongst the ancient 
nations of the earth ? The truth is, they are still the subject of 
prophecy, with respect to both the Old and New Testament. 
They exist as monuments of God's wrath against them ; as 
witnesses to the truth of the Scriptures which condemn them ; 
and as the destined subjects of his final mercy before the end of 
the world. They are to be found in every quarter of the globe ; 
but in the condition which their great legislator Moses threatened 
them with, if they forsook the Lord, namely, that he would 
remove them into all the kingdoms of the earth. Deut. xxviii. 25. 
That they should become an astonishment and a by-word, among 
all nations, ibid. 37. That they should find no ease, neither 
hould the sole of their foot have rest, ibid. 65. Finally, they are 
every where seen, but carrying, written on their foreheads, the 
curse which they pronounced on themselves in rejecting- their 
Messiah : his blood be upon us and upon our children. Mat. xxvii. 
25. Still is this extraordinary people preserved, to be, in the 
end, converted, and to find mercy. Rom. xi. 25. &c. 

SAMUEL CAREY 



41 



LETTER II. 

TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 

PRELIMINARIES. 

Winton, Odder 20, 1801. 

Dear Sir, 

YOU certainly want no apology for writing to me on the 
subject of your letter. For if, as St. Peter inculcates, each 
Christian ought to he ready always to give an answer to every 
man that askcth him a reason of the hope that is in him, 1 Pet. iii. 
15. how inexcusable would a person of my ministry and com- 
mission be, who am a debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barba- 
rians, both to the wise and the unwise, Rom. i. 14. were I unwill- 
ing to give the utmost satisfaction in my power, respecting the 
Catholic religion, to any human being whose inquiries appear to 
proceed from a serious and candid mind, desirous of discovering 
and embracing religious truth, such as 1 must believe yours to 
be. And yet this disposition is exceedingly rare among Chris- 
tians. Infinitely the greater part of them, in choosing a system 
of religion, or in adhering to one, are guided by motives of 
interest, worldly honour, or convenience. These inducements 
not only rouse their worst passions, but also blind their judge- 
ment ; so as to create hideous phantoms to their intellectual 
eyes, and to hinder them from seeing the most conspicuous 
objects which stand before them. To such inconsistent. Chris- 
tians, nothing proves so irritating as the attempt to disabuse 
them of their errors, except the success of it, by putting it 
out of their power to defend them any longer. These are 
they ; and O ! how infinite is their number ! of whom Christ 
says, they love darkness rather than light, John iii. 16. ; and 
who say to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things : 
speak unto us smooth things. Isai. xxx. 10. They form to them- 
selves a false conscience, as the Jews did, when they murdered 
their Messiah, Acts iii. 17.: and as he himself foretold many 
others would do, in murdering his disciples. John xvi. 2. I 
cannot help saying that I myself have experienced something 
of this spirit, in my religious discussions with persons who have 
beei loudest in professing their candour and charity. Hence, I 
make no doubt that, if the elucidation which you call for at my 
hands, for your numerous society should happen, by any means 
to become public, that I shall have to eat the bread of affliction, 
and drink the water of tribulation, 1 Kings xxii. 17. for this 



42 



Letter II. 



disc/ xarge of my duty, perhaps for the remainder of mv life 

But, as the apostle writes, none of these things move me ; neither 
count I my life-dear to me, so that I may finish my course xith 
j>y, and the ministry which I have received from the Lord Jesus. 
Acts xx. 24. 

It remains, sir, to settle the conditions of our correspondence. 
What 1 propose is, that, in the first place, we should mutually, 
and indeed all of us who are concerned in this friendly contro- 
versy, be at perfect liberty, to speak, without offence to any one, 
of doctrines, practices, and persons, as we judge best for the 
discovery of truth: secondly, that we should be disposed, in 
common, as far as poor human nature will permit, to investigate 
truth with* impartiality ; to acknowledge it, when discovered, 
with candour ; and, of course, to renounce every error and un- 
founded prejudice that may be detected, on any side, whatever 
it may cost us in so doing. I, for my part, dear sir, here sol- 
emnly promise, that I will publicly renounce the religion, of 
which 1 am a minister, and will induce as many of my flock, as 
I may have influence over, to do the same, should it prove to be 
that " mass of absurdity, bigotry, superstition, idolatry, and 
immorality," which you, sir, and most Protestants conceive it 
to be ; nay, even if I should not succeed in clearing it of these 
respective charges. To religious controversy, when originating 
in its proper motives, a desire of serviug God and securing our 
salvation, 1 cannot declare myself an enemy, without virtually 
condemning the conduct of Christ himself, who, on every occa- 
sion, arraigned and refuted the errors of the Pharisees : but I 
cannot conceive any hypocrisy so detestable as that of ascending 
the pulpit or employing the pen on sacred subjects to serve our 
temporal interest, our resentment, or our pride, under pretext of 
promoting or defending religious truth. — To inquirers, in the for- 
mer predicament, I hold myself a debtor, as I have already said ; 
but the circumstances must be extraordinary to induce me to 
hold a communication with persons in the latter. Lastly, as you 
appear, sir, to approve of the plan I spoke of in my first letter to 
Dr. Sturges, I mean to pursue it on the present occasion. This, 
however, will necessarily throw back the examination of your 
charges to a considerable distance ■ as several other important 
inquiries must precede. 

I am, &c. 

J. M 



43 



LETTER III. 
Fiom JAMES BROWN, Esq. to the Rev. J. M.'D. D. 

PRELIMINARIES. 

New Cottage, Oct. 30, 1801 

Reverend Sir, 

I HAVE been favoured, in due course, with yours of the 20th 
instant, which I have communicated to those persons of our so- 
ciety, whom I have had an opportunity of seeing. No circum- 
stance could strike us with greater sorrow, than that you should 
suffer any inconvenience from your edifying promptness to com- 
ply with our well meant request, and we confidently trust that 
nothing of the kind will take place through our fault. We agree 
with you, as to the necessity of perfect freedom of speech, where 
the discovery of important truths is the real object of inquiry. 
Hence, while we are at liberty to censure many of your popes, 
and other clergy, Mr. Topham will not be offended with any 
thing that you can prove against Calvin ; nor will Mr. Rankin 
quarrel with you for exposing the faults of George Fox and James 
Naylor ; nor shall I complain of you for any thing that you can 
make out against our venerable Latimer or Cranmer ; I say the 
same of doctrines and practices, as of persons. If you are guilty 
of Idolatry, or we of heresy, we are respectively unfortunate, 
and the greatest charity we can do, is to point out to each other 
the danger of our respective situations, to their full extent. Not 
to renounce error and embrace truth of every kind, when we 
clearly-see it, would be folly ; and to neglect doing this, when 
the question is about religious truth, would be folly and wicked- 
ness combined together. Finally, we cheerfully leave you to 
follow what course you please, and to whatever extent you please, 
provided you only give us such satisfaction as you can give, on 
the subjects I mentioned in my former letter, 

I am, Rev. Sir, &c. JAMES BROWN. 



LETTER IV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. <5fc. 
dispositions for religious inquiry. 

Dear Sir, 

THE dispositions which you profess, on the part of your 
friends, as well as yourself, I own, please me, and animate me 



44 



Letter IV. 



to undertake the task you impose upon me. Nevertheless 

availing myself of the liberty of speech which, you and your 
friends allow me, I am forced to observe that there is nothing 
in which men are more apt to deceive themselves, than in think- 
ing themselves to be free from religious prejudices, and sincere 
in seeking after, and resolved to embrace and follow the truth 
of religion, in opposition to their preconceived opinions and 
worldly interests. How many imitate Pilate, who, when he had 
asked our Saviour the question, What is truth ? presently went 
out of his company, before he could receive an answer to it ! 
John xviii. 38. How many others resemble the rich young man, 
who, having interrogated Christ, What good thing shall I do that 
I may have eternal life? when this divine master answered him, 
If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell what thou hast and give to the 
poor ; — went away sorrowful ! Matt. xix. 22. Finally, how many 
more act like certain presumptuous disciples of our Lord, who, 
when he had propounded to them a mystery beyond their con- 
ception, that of the real presence, in these words, My flesh is 
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed ; — said, this is a hard 
saying ; who can hear it? — and went back and walked no more 
with him ! John vi. 56 O ! if all Christians, of the different 
sects and opinions, were but possessed of the sincerity, disin- 
terestedness, and earnestness, to serve their God, and save their 
souls, which a Francis Walsingham, kinsman to the great states- 
man of that name, a Hugh Paulin Cressy, dean of Laugblin, and 
prebendary of Windsor, and an Anthony Ulric, duke of Bruns- 
wick and Lunenburgh, prove themselves to have been possessed 
of ; the first, in his Search into Matters of Religion ; the second, 
in his Exomologesis, or Motives of Conversion, 8$c. ; and the last, 
in his Fifty Reasons ; how soon would all and every one of our 
controversies cease, and we be all united in one faith, hope, 
and charity ! I will here transcribe, from the preface to the 
Fifty Reasons, what the illustrious relative of his majesty says, 
concerning the dispositions, with which he set about inqui- 
ring into the grounds and differences of the several systems 
of Christianity, when he began to entertain doubts con- 
cerning the truth of that in which he had been educated ; 
namely, Lutheranism. He says, " First, I earnestly implored 
the aid and grace of the Holy Ghost, and with all my power, 
begged the light of true faith, from God, the father of lights," &c. 
" Secondly, 1 made a strong resolution, by the grace of God, to 
avoid sin, well knowing that Wisdom will not enter into a cor- 
rupt mind, nor dwell in a body subjf-ct to sin," Wisd. i. 4. " anr* 
I am convinced, and was so then, that the reason why so manv 



Letter IV. 



45 



are ignorant of the true faith, and do not embrace it, is because 
they are plunged into several vices, and particularly into carnal 
sins." Then, " Thirdly, I renounced all sorts of prejudices, 
whatever they were, which incline men to one religon more than 
another, which unhappily I might have formerly espoused, and I 
brought, myself to a peifect indifference, so as to be ready to em- 
brace whichsoever the grace of the Holy Ghost, and the light 
of reason, should point out to me, without any regard to the ad- 
vantages and inconveniences, that might attend it in this world." 
" Lastly, I entered upon this deliberation, and this choice, in the 
manner I should wish to have done it at the hour of my death, 
and in a full conviction, that, at the day of judgment, I must give 
an account to God, why I followed this religion in preference to 
all the rest." The princely inquirer finishes this account of 
himself with the following awful reflectiens : " Man has but one 
soul, which will be eternally either damned or saved. What 
doth it avail a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? 
Matt. xvi. 26. — Eternity knows no end. The course of it is 
perpetual. It is a series of unlimited duration. — There is no 
comparison between things infinite and those which are not so 
O ! the happiness of the eternity of the saints ! O ! the wretch- 
edness of the eternity of the damned. One of these two eterni- 
ties awaits us !" 

I remain, Sir, yours, &c. J. M. 



LETTER V. 

To J A MES BRO WN, Esq. 
method of finding out the true religion. 
Dear Sir, 

IT is obvious to common sense, that, in order to find out any 
hidden thing, or to do any difficult thing, we must first discover, 
and then follow, the proper method for such purpose. If we do 
not take the right road to any distant place, it cannot be expect- 
ed that we should arrive at it. If we get hold of a wrong clue, 
we shall never extricate ourselves from a labyrinth. Some per- 
sons choose their religion as they do their clothes, by fancy. 
They are pleased, for example, with the talents of a preacher, 
when presently they adopt his creed. Many adhere to their 
religious system, merely because they were educated in it, and 
because it was that of their parents and family ; which, if it were 
* reasonable motive for their resolution, would equally excuse 



46 



Letter V. 



Jews, Turks, and Pagans, for persisting in their respective im- 
piety, and would impeach the preaching of Christ and his apos« 
ties ! Others glory in their religion, because it is the one estab- 
lished in this their country, so renowned for science, literature, 
and arms : not reflecting that the polished and conquering na- 
tions of antiquity, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, 
and Romans, were left, by the inscrutable judgments of God, in 
darkness and the shadow of death, while a poor oppressed and 
despised people on the banks of the Jordan, were the only depos- 
itary of divine truth, and the sole truly enlightened nation. But, 
far the greater part even of Christians, of every denomination, 
make the business of eternity subservient to that of time," and 
profess the religion which suits best their interest, their reputa- 
tion, and their convenience. I trust that none of your respecta- 
ble society fall under any of these descriptions. They all have, 
or fancy they have, a rational method of discovering religious 
truth, in other words an adequate rule of faith. Before I enter 
into any disquisition on this all-important controversy, concern- 
ing the right rule of faith, on which the determination of every 
other depends, I will lay "down three fundamental maxims, the 
truth of which, 1 believe, no rational Christian will dispute. 

First, our divine master, Christ, in establishing a religion here 
on earth, to which all the nations of it were invited, Mat. xviii. 19, 
left some RULE or method, by which those per sons, who sincerely 
seek for it, may certainly find, it. 

Secondly, this rule or method, must be SECURE and ' never- 
failing ; so as not to be ever liable to lead a rational, sincere in- 
quirer, into error, impiety, or immorality, of any kind. 

Thirdly, This rule or method must be UNIVERSAL, that is 
to say, adapted to the abilities and other circumstances, of all 
those persons for whom the religion itself was intended; namely 
the great bulk of mankind. 

By adhering to these undeniable maxims, we shall quickly, 
dear sir, and clearly, discover the method appointed by Christ, 
for arriving at the knowledge of the truths which he has taught, 
in other words, at the right rule of faith. Being possessed of 
this rule, we shall have nothing else, of course, to do than to 
make use of it, for securely, and, 1 trust, amicably, settling all 
our controversies. This is the short and satisfactory method 
of composing religious Inferences, which I alluded to in my 
above mentioned letter to Dr. Sturges. To discuss them all, 
separately is an endless task, whereas this method reduces them 
to a singie question. 

I am. &c. J. M. 



47 



LETTER VI. 

TO JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
the first fallacious rule of faith. 

Dear Sir, 

AMONG serious Christians, who profess to make the dis- 
covery and practice of religion their first and earnest care, three 
different methods or* rules have been adopted for the purpose. 
The lirst consists in a supposed private inspiration, or an imme- 
diate light and motion of God's spirit, communicated to the 
individual. This was the rule of faith and conduct formerly- 
professed by the Montanists, the Anabaptists, the Family of 
Love, and is now professed by the Quakers, the Moravians, and 
different classes of the Methodists. The second of these rules 
is the written Word of God, or THE B1BL&, according as it is 
understood by each particular reader or hearer of it. This is the 
professed rule of the more regular sects of Protestants, such as 
the Lutherans the Calvinists, the Socinians, the Church of Eng- 
land men. The third rule is THE WORD OF GOD, at large, 
whether written in the Bible, or handed down from the apostles in 
continued succession by the Catholic church, and as it is understood 
and explained by this church. To speak more accurately, besides 
their rule of faith, namely, Scripture and tradition, Catholics 
acknowledge an unerring judge of controversy, or sure guide in 
all matters relating to salvation, namely, THE CHURCH. I 
shall now proceed to show that the first mentioned rule, namely, 
a supposed private inspiration, is quite fallacious, in as much as 
it is liable to conduct, and has conducted many, into acknowledged 
errors and impiety. 

About the middle of the second age of Christianity, Monta- 
nus, Maximilla and Priscilla, with their followers, by adopting 
this enthusiastical rule, rushed into the excess of folly and blas- 
phemy. They taught that the Holy Spirit, having failed to save 
mankind, by Moses, and afterwards by Christ, had enlightened 
and sanctified them to accomplish this great work. The strict- 
ness of their precepts, and apparent sanctity of their lives, 
deceived many, till at length the two former proved what spirit 
they were guided by, in hanging themselves.* Several other 
heretics became dupes of the same principles in the primitive 
and the middle ages ; but it was reserved for the time of reli- 
gious licentiousness, improperly called the Reformation, to display 



* Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. v. c. 15. 



48 



Letter VI. 



the full extent of its absurdity and impiety. In less than five 
years after Luther had sounded the trumpet of evangelical liberty, 
the sect of Anabaptists arose in Germany and the Low Coun- 
tries. They professed to hold immediate communication with 
God, and to be ordered by him to despoil and kill all the wicked, 
and to establish a kingdom of the just,* who, to become such 
were all to be rebaptized. Carlostad, Luther's first disciple ot 
note, embraced tbis Ultra- Reformation ; but its acknowledged 
head, during his reign, was John Bockhold*, a taylor of Leydbii, 
who proclaimed himself king of Sion, and who, during a certain 
time, was really sovereign of Munster, in Lower Germany, 
where he committed the greatest imaginable excesses, marrying 
eleven wives at a time, and putting them, and numberless other 
of his subjects to death, at the motion of his supposed interior 
spirit. t He declared that God had made him a present of 
Amsterdam and other cities, which he sent parties of his disci- 
ples to take possession of. These ran naked through the streets, 
howling out, " Wo to Babylon ; wo to the wicked ;" and, when 
they were apprehended, and on the point of being executed for 
their seditions and murders, they sung and danced on the scaffold, 
exulting in the imaginary light of their spirit,^ Herman, another 
Anabaptist, was moved by his spirit to declare himself the Mes- 
siah, and thus to evangelize the people, his hearers : " Kill the 
priests, kill all the migistrates in the world : repent : your re- 
demption is at hand."§ One of their chief and most accredited 
preachers, David George, persuaded a numerous sect of them, 
that " the doctrine both of the Old and New Testament was 
imperfect, but that his own was perfect, and that he was the 
true Son of God."\\ I do not notice these impieties and other 
crimes for their singularity or their atrociousness, but because 
they were committed upon the principle and under a full conviction 
of an individual and uncontrolable inspiration, on the part of their 
dupes and perpetrators. 

Nor has our own country been more free from this enthusi- 
astic principle than Germany and Holland. Nicholas, a disci- 
ple of the above mentioned David George, came over to Eng- 
land with a supposed commission from God to teach men that 
the essence of religion consists in the feelings of divine love, 

* " Cum Deo colloquium esse et mandatum habere se dicebant, ut, im« 
piis omnibus intert'ectis, novum constituerent mundum, in quo pii solum el- 
innocentes viverent et rerum, potirentur." — Sleidan. De Stat. Rel. et Reip, 
Comment. 1. iii. p. 45. 

t Hist. Abreg. de la Reform, par Garard Brandt, torn i. p. 4G. Mo- 
sheim, Eccles Hist, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 452. I Brandt, p. 49, &c. 

§ Brandt, p. 51. II Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 484. 



Letter VI. 



49 



and that all other things relating either to faith or w orship, are 
of no moment.* He extended this maxim even to the funda- 
mental precepts of morality, professing to continue in sin that 
^race might abound. His followers, under the name of the 
Familists, or The Family of Love, were very numerous at the 
end of the sixteenth century, about which time, Hacket, a Cal- 
vinist giving way to the same spirit of delusion, became deeply 
persuaded that the spirit of the Messiah had descended upon 
him ; and, having made several proselytes, he sent two of them, 
Arthington and Coppinger, to proclaim through the streets of 
London, that Christ was come thither with his fan in his hand. 
This spirit, instead of being repressed, became still more un- 
governable at the sight of the scaffold and the gibbet, prepared 
in Cheapside for his execution. Accordingly he continued till 
the last, exclaiming, " Jehova, Jehova ; don't you see the hea- 
vens open, and Jesus corning to deliver me, &c."t Who has 
not heard of Venner, and his Fifth Monarchy-men, who, guided 
by the same private spirit of inspiration, rushed from their 
meeting house in Coleman street, proclaiming that they would 
" acknowledge no sovereign but king Jesus, and that they would 
not sheathe their swords, till they had made Babylon (that is 
monarchy) a hissing and a curse, not only in England, but also 
throughout foreign countries ; having an assurance that one of 
them would put a thousand enemies to flight, and two of them 
ten thousand ?" Venner being " taken and led to execution, 
with several of his followers, protested it was not he, but Jesus, 
who had acted as their leader."J I pass over the unexampled 
I follies and the horrors of the grand rebellion, having detailed 
| many of them elsewhere. § It is enough to remark that, while 
i many of these were committed from the licentiousness of pri- 
vate interpretation of Scripture, many others originated in the 
enthusiastic opinion which I am now combating, that of an im 
mediate individual inspiration, equal, if not superior, to that oi 
the Scriptures themselves. jj 

It was in the midst of these religious and civil commotions 
that the most extraordinary people of all those who have adopt- 
ed the fallacious rule of private inspiration, started up at the call 
of George Fox, a shoe-maker of Leicestershire. His funda- 
mental propositions, as laid down by the most able of his follow- 

\ * Ibid. Brandt. 

i Fuller's Church Hist. b. ix. p. 113 Stow's Annals, A. D. J 591. 

I t Echard's Hist, of Eng. &c. 

§ Letters to a Prebendary. Reign of Charles I. 

U 3ee the remarkable history of the military preachers at Kingston. Ibid. 



00 Letter VI. 

ers,* are, that, " The Srciptures are not the adequate primary 

rule of faith and manners, — but a secondary rule, subordinate to 
the spirit, from which they have their excellency and certainty :"f 
that the testimony of the spirit is that alone by which the true 
knowledge of God hath jeen, is, and can be revealed :"| thai j 
" all true and acceptable worship of God is offered in the inward 
and immediate moving and drawing of his own spirit, which is 
neither limited to places, times, nor persons. "§ Such are the 
avowed principles of the people called Quakers : let us now see 
some of the fruits of those principles, as recorded by themselves, 
in their founder and first apostles. 

George Fox tells of himself, that at the beginning of his mis- 
sion he was " moved to go to several courts and steeple-houses, 
(churches) at Mansfield, and other places, to warn them to leave 
off oppression and oaths, and to turn from deceit, and to turn to 
the Lord. "|| On these occasions the language and behaviour of 
his spirit was very far from the meekness and respect for con- 
stituted authorities of the Gospel spirit, as appears from different 
passages in his Journal.^ He tells us of one of his disciples, 
William Simpson, who was " moved of the Lord to go, at several 
times, for three years, naked and barefoot before them, as a j 
sign unto them, in markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests houses, 
and to great men's houses, telling them, so should they be all 
stripped naked. Another Friend, one Robert Huntingdon was 
moved of the Lord to go into Carlisle steeple-house with a white 
sheet about him."** We are told of a female Friend who went 
" stark naked in the midst of public worship, into Whitehall 
chapel, when Cromwell was there ;" and another woman, who 

* Robert Barclay's Apology for the Quakers. 

t Propos. III. In defending this proposition, Barclay cites some of the 
Friends, who, being unable to read the Scriptures, even in the vulgar lan- i 
guage, and being pressed by adversaries with passages from it, boldly denied, j 
from the manifestation of truth in their own hearts, that such passages were j 
contained in the Scriptures, p. 82. 

t Propos. II. § Propos. XI. 

U See the Journal of George Fox, written by himself, and published by ! 
his disciple Penn, son of admiral Penn, folio, p. 17. 

IT 1 shall satisfy myself with citing part of his letter, written in 1660, to 1 , 

Charles II. ' King Charles, thou earnest not into this nation by sword J 

nor by victory of war, but by the power of the Lord. And if thou dost; 
bear the sword in vain, and let drunkenness, oaths, plays, May-games, with t, ; 
fiddlers, drum-s. and trumpets to play at them, with such like abominations! :jr 
and vanities, be encouraged, or go unpunished, as setting up of May-poles, ' 
with the image of a crown a-top of them, the nation will quickly turn, 
like Sodom and Gomorrah, and be as bad as the old world, who grieved the n 
Lord, till he overthrew them : and so he will you, if these things be not 
iuddenly prevented," &c G F.'s Journal, p. 225. 

•* Journal p. 239- 



Letter VI. 



51 



same into the parliament hous^ with a trencher in her hand, 

which she broke in pieces, -saying, thus shall he be broken in 
pieces." — One came to the door of the parliament house with a 
drawn sword, and "wounded several, saying, he was inspired by 
the Holy Spirit to kill every man that sat in that house."* But 
on no one occasion have the Friends, with George Fox himself, 
been so embarrassed to save their rule of faith, as they have 
been to reconcile with it the conduct of James Naylor.f When 
certain low and disorderly people in Hampshire, disgraced their 
society and became obnoxious to the laws, G. Fox disowned 
them,| but, when a Friend of James Naylor's character and 
services^ became the laughing-stock of the nation for his pre- 
sumption and blasphemy, there was no other way for the society 
to separate his cause from their own, but by abandoning their 
fundamental principles, which leaves every man to follow the 
spirit within him, as he himself feels it. The fact is, James 
Naylor, like so many other dupes of a supposed private spirit, 
fancied himself to be the Messiah, and in this character rode 
into Bristol, his disciples spreading their garments before him, and 
crying, Holy, holy, holy, hosannah in the highest : and when he 
had been scourged by order of parliament, for his impiety, he 
permitted the fascinated women, who followed him, to kiss his 
feet and his wounds, and to hail him " the prince of peace, the 
rose of Sharon, the fairest of ten thousand,"! &c. 

I pass over many sects of less note, as the Muggletonians, 
the Labbadists, &c. who, by pursuing the meteor of a supposed 
inward light, were led into the most impious and immoral prac- 
tices. Allied to these are the Moravian brethren, or Hernhut- 
ters, so called from Hernhuth in Moravia, where their apostle, 
count Zinzendorf, made an establishment for them. They are 
now spread over England, with ministers and bishops appoint- 
ed by others resident at Hernhuth. Their rule of faith, as laid 
down by Zinzendorf, is an imaginary inward light, against which 

* Maclaine's note on Mosheim, vol. v. p. 470- 
'Mf i See History of the Quakers, by William Sewel,' folio, p. 138. Journal 

of G. Fox, p. 220. t Journal of G. Fox, p. 320. 

OrH* § Ibid. p. 220. Sewel's Hist, of Quakers, p. 140. 

# II Echard's Hist. Maclaine's Mosheim. Neal's Hist, of Puritans. In 
<W closing this account of the Quakers, we may remark that there is no ap- 
W pearance yet of the fulfilment of the confident prophecy with which Bar- 
clay concludes his Apology : " That little spark (Quakerism) that, hath 
appeared, shall grow to the consuming of whatsoever shall stand op to op- 
pose it. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it ! Yea ; he that hath risen 
in a small remnant, shall arise and go on by the same arm of power in his 
^n"' c spiritual manifestation until he hath conquered all his enemies ; until all 
the kingdoms of the earth become the kingdom of Jesus Christ." 



53 



Letter VI. 



he true believer cannot sin. This they are taught to wait fo 
m quiet, omitting prayer, reading the Scriptures, and other works. 
They deny that even the moral law contained in the Scriptures 
is a rule of life for believers. Having considered this system 
in all its bearings, we are the less surprised at the disgusting 
obscenity, mingled with blasphemy, which is to be met with in 
the theological tracts of the German coimt.f 

The next system of delusion which I shall mention, as pro- 
ceeding from the fatal principle of an interior rule of faith ! 
though framed in England, was also the work of a foreign no- 
bleman, baron Swedenborg. His first supposed revelation was 
at an eating-house in London, about the year 1745. " After I 
had dined," says he, " a man appeared to me sitting in the cor- 
ner of the room, who cried out to me, with a terrible voice, Don't 
eat so much. The following night the same man appeared to 
me, shining with light, and said to me, / am the Lord your Cre- 
ator and Redeemer, I have chosen you to explain to men the inte- 
rior and spiritual sense of the Scriptures : I will dictate to you 
»hat you are to write"\ His imaginary communications with 
God and the angels were as frequent and familiar as those of 
Mahomed, and his conceptions of heavenly things were as gross 
and incoherent as those of the Arabian impostor. Suffice it to say 
that his God is a mere man, his angels are male and female, who 
marry together and follow various trades and professions. Fi 
nally, his New Jerusalem, which is to be spread, over the whole 
earth, is so little different from this sublunary world that the 
entrance into it is imperceptible.^ So far is true, that the New 
Jerusalemites are spread throughout England, and have chapels 
in most of its principal towns.|| 

* Wesley, in a letter which he inscribes " To the church of God at 
Hernhuth," says, " There are many whom your brethren have advised, 
though not in their public preaching, not to use the Ordinances — reading 
the Scripture, praying, communicating ; as the doing these things is seeking 
salvation by works. Some of" our English brethren (Moravians) say, You 
will never hare faith till you leave off the church and the sacraments: as 
many go to hell fry praying as by thieving," Journal, 1740. John Nelson, 
in his own Journal, tells us, that the Moravians call their religion the Lib- 
erty, and the Poor Sinnership, adding that " they sell their prayer books, 
and leave off reading and praying to follow the Lamb.' 

t See Maclaine's Hist vol. vi. p. 23, and bishop Warburton's Doctrine 
of Grace, quoted by him. 

$ Raruel's Hist, du Jacobinisme, torn. iv. p. 118. 

§ Baruel's Hist du Jacobinisme, torn. iv. p. 118- 

II Since the above letter was written, another sect, the Joannites, oi 
disciples of Joanna Southcote have risen to notice by their number andi 
the singularity of their tenets. This female apostle has been led by her 
T|>irit to believe herself to be the woman of Genesis, destined to crush the 



Letter VI. 



53 



I am sorry to be obliged to enter upon the same list with these 
enthusiasts, a numerous class, many of them very respectable, 
of modern religionists, called Methodists : yet, since their avow- 
ed system of faith is, that this consists in an instantaneous illapse 
of God's spirit into the souls of certain persons, by which they 
are convinced of their justification and salvation, without refer- 
ence to Scripture or any thing else, they cannot be placed, as 
to their rule of faith, under any other denomination. This, ac- 
cording to the founder's doctrine, is the only article of faith ; all 
other articles he terms opinions, of which he says, " the Metho- 
dists do not lay any stress on them, whether right or wrong."* 
He continues : " 1 am sick of opinions ; 1 am weary to bear 
them ; my soul loaths this frothy food."f Conformably to this 
latitudinarian system, Wesley opens heaven indiscriminately to 
churchmen, Presbyterians, Independents, Quakers, and even 
to Catholics.^ Addressing the last named, he exclaims, " O 
that God would write in your hearts the rules of self-denial and 
love laid down by Thomas a Kempis ; or that you would follow 
in this and in good works, the burning and shining light of your 
own church, the marquis of Renty.§ Then would all who know 
and love the truth, rejoice to acknowledge you as the church of 
the living God."|| 

At the first rise of Methodism in Oxford, A. D. 1729, John 
Wesley and his companions were plain, serious church of Eng- 

head of the infernal serpent, with whom she supposes herself to have had 
daily battles, to the effusion of his blood. She believes herself to be, like- 
wise, the woman of the Revelations crowned with twelve stars, which are 
so many ministers of the established church. In fact, one of these, a richly 
beneficed rector, and of a noble family, acts as her secretary, in writing and 
sealing passports to heaven, which she supposes herself authorized to issue, 
to the number of 344,000, at a very moderate price. One of these pass- 
ports, in due form, is in the writer's possession. It is sealed with three 
seals. The first exhibits two stars, namely, the morning star, to represent 
Christ, the evening star, to represent herself. The second seal exhibits 
the lion of Juda, supposed to allude to the insane prophet, Richard Brothers. 
The third show6 the face of Joanna herself. Of late, her inspiration has 
taken a new turn : she believes herself to be pregnant of the Messiah, and 
her followers have prepared silver vessels of various sorts for his use, wh( u 
he is born. 

* Wesley's Appeal, P. III. p. 134. + Ibid. p. 135. 

t Wesley's Appeal. 

§ His life is written in French, by Pere St. Jure, a Jesuit, and abridged 
in English by J. W T esley. 

II In his " Popery Calmly Considered." p. 20, Wesley writes : " I firmly 
believe that many members of the church of Rome have been holy men, 
and that many are so now." He elsewhere says, " Several of them (Pa- 
pists) have attained to as high a pitch of sanctity as human nature is rapauU 
of arriving at." 



54 



Letter VI. 



land men, assiduous and methodical in praying, reading, fastim 
and the like. What they practised themselves, they preached 
to others both in England and America, till becoming intimate 
with the Moravia'i brethren, and particularly with Peter Bohler, 
one of their elders, John Wesley, " became convinced of unbe- 
Jef, namely, a want of that faith whereby alone we are saved •'* 
Speaking of his past life and ministry, he says, " I was funda- 
mentally a Papist, and knew it not."f Soon after this persui 
sion, namely, on May 24, 1739, " Going into a society in Ai- 
dersgate street," he says, " whilst a person was reading Luther's 
Preface to the Romans, about a quarter before nine, I felt my 
heart strangely warmed : I felt 1 did trust in Christ, in Christ 
alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had 
taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin 
and death^X 

What were now the unavoidable consequences of a diffusion 
of this doctrine among the people at large? Let us hear them 
from Wesley's most able disciple and destined successor, Fletch- 
er, of Madeley. " Antinomian principles and practices," he says, 
" have spread like wild-fire among our societies. Many per- 
sons, speaking in the most glorious manner of Christ and their 
interest in his complete salvation, have been found living in the 
greatest immoralities. — How few of our societies, where cheat- 
ing, extorting, or some other evil hath not broke out, and given 
such shakes to the ark of the Gospel, that, had not the Lord in- 
terposed, it must have been overset — " I have seen them 
who pass for believers, follow the strain of corrupt nature ; and 
when they should have exclaimed against Antinomianism, I have 
heard them cry ont against the legality of their wicked hearts, 
which they said, still suggested that they were to do something for 
their salvation"^ — " How few of our celebrated pulpits, where 
more has not been said for sin than against it /"^f — The same 
candid writer, laying open the foulness of his former system, 
charges Sir Richard Hill, who persisted in it, with maintaining 
that, " Even adultery and murder do not hurt the pleasant chil- 

* Whitehead's Life of John and Charles Wesley, vol. ii p. 68 

t Journal, A. D. 1739. Elsewhere, Wesley says, " O what a work has 
God begun since Peter Bohler came to England ! such a one as shall 
never come to an end, till heaven and earth pass away." 

t Vide Whitehead, vol. ii. page 79. In a letter to his brother Samuel, 
John Wesley says, By a Christian, I mean one who so believes in Christ 
that death hath no dominion over him, and in this obvious sense of the 
word I was not a Christian till 24th of May, last year." Ibid. 105. 

§ Checks to Antinom. vol. i.. p. 22 I. Ibid, page 200. 

U Ibid pa?e 215. 



Letter VI. 



55 



dren, but rather work for their good."* — " God sees no sin in 
believers, whatever sin they commit. My sins might displease 
God ; my person is always acceptable t© him. Though 1 should 
outsin Manasses, I should not be less a pleasant child, because 
God always views me in Christ. Hence, in the midst of adul- 
teries, murders and incests, he can address me with. Thou art 
all fair my love, my undejiled, there is no spot in thee."\ — " It is a 
most pernicious error of the schoolmen to distinguish sins accor- 
ding to the fact, and not according to the person" — " Though I 
blame those who say, Let us sin that grace may abound, yet 
adultery, incest, and murder, shall, upon the whole, make me 
holier on earth, and merrier in heaven"\ 

These doctrines and practices, casting great disgrace on Me- 
thodism, alarmed its founder. He therefore held a synod of his 
chief preachers, under the title of a Conference, in which he and 
they unanimously abandoned their past fundamental principles, 
in the following confession which they made. — " Quest. 17. 
Have we not unawares, leaned too much to Calvanism ? Ans. 
We are afraid we have. Quest. 18. Have we not also leaned 
too much to Antinomianism ? Ans. We are afraid we have. 
Quest. 20. What are the main pillars of it ? Ans. 1. That Christ 
abolished the moral law : 2. That Christians therefore are not 
obliged to observe it : 3. That one branch of Christian liberty, 
is liberty from observing the commandments of God," &c.§ The 
publication of this retraction, in 1770, raised the indignation of 
the more rigid Methodists, namely, the Whitefieldites, Jumpers, 
&c. all of whom were under the particular patronage of lady 
Huntingdon : accordingly her chaplain, the Hon. and Rev. Wal- 
ter Shirley, issued a circular letter by her direction, calling a 
general meeting of her connexion, as it is called, at Bristol, to 
censure this " dreadful heresy," which, as Shirley affirmed, " in- 
jured the very fundamentals of Christianity." || 

* Fletcher's Works, vol. iii. page 50. Agricola, one of Luther's first dis- 
ciples, is called the founder of the Antinomians. These hold that the 
faithful are bound by no law, either of God or man, and that good works 
of every kind are useless to salvation ; while Amsdorf, Luther's pot-com- 
panion, taught that they are an impediment to salvation. Mosheim's Ec- 
cles. Hist, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 35. p. 328. Eaton, a Puritan, in his 
Honeycomb of Justification, says, " Believers ought not to mourn for sin, 
because it was pardoned before it was committed." 

t Fletcher, vol. iv. p. 97. 

X Quoted by Fletcher. See also Daubeny's Guide to the Church, p. 82. 
§ Apud Whitehead, p. 213. Benson's Apology, p. 208. 
II Fletcher's Works, vol. ii. p. 5. Whitehead. Nightingale's Portrait 
of Methc 'ism, p. 463. 



56 



Letter VII. 



Having exhibited this imperfect sketch of the errors, contra 
dictions,° absurdities, impieties, and immoralities, into whici 
numberless Christians, most of them, no doubt, sincere in then 
belief, have fallen, by pursuing phantoms of their imagination 
for divine illuminations, and adopting a supposed immediate and 
personal revelation as the rule of their faith and conduct, I would 
request any one of your respectable society, who may, still ad- 
here to it, to reconsider the self-evident maxim laid down in the 
beginning of this letter ; namely, that cannot be the rule of faith 
and conduct which is liable to lead us, and has led very many 
well meaning persons into error and impiety ; I would remind hiin 
of his frequent mistakes and illusions respecting things of a tem- 
porary nature ; then, painting to his mind the all-importance of 
ETERNITY, that is of happiness or misery inconceivable and 
everlasting, I would address him in the words -of St. Augustine, 
" What is it you are trusting to, poor, weak soul, and blinded 
with the mists of the flesh : what is it you are trusting to ? 

J. M 



LETTER VII. 
To JAMES BROWN, Esq ijc. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Dear Sir. 

I HAVE just received a letter from Friend tlankin. of Wen- 
lock, written much in the style of George Fox and another from 
Mr. Ebenezer Topham, of Brozeley. The} both consist of 
objections to my last letter to you, which the) had perused at 
New Cottage ; and the writers of them both request that I would 
address whatever answer I might give them, to your villa. 

Friend Rankin is sententious, yet civil. He asks, first, Whether 
« Friends at this day and in past times, and ever the faithful 
servant of Christ, George Fox, have not condemned the vain 
imaginations of James Naylor, Thomas Bushel, John Perot, and 
the sinful doings of many others, through whom the word of life 
was blasphemed in their day among the ungodly ?" He asks, 
secondly, " Whether numberless follies, blasphemies, an<( crimes. ; 
have not risen up in the Roman Catholic as well as in other , 
churches ? M He asks, thirdly, Whether the " learned Robert f 
Barclay in his glorious Apology, hath not shown forth, tka*. the ' 
testimony of the spirit is that alone by which the true knowi'd^e , 
of God, hath been, is, and can be revealed and confirmed ; and „ 
this not only by the outward testimony of Scripture, but Js<» bv « 



Letter til. 



5? 



that of Tertullian, Hierom, Augustin, Gregory tlie Great, Ber- 
nard, yea also by Thomas a "Kempis, F. Pacificus Baker,* and 
many others of the Popish communion, who, says Robert Bar- 
clay, have known and tasted the love of God, and felt the power 
and virtue of God's spirit working within them for their salva- 
tion ?"f 

I will first consider the arguments of Friend Rankin. I grant 
him, then, that his founder, George Fox, does blame certain 
extravagancies of Naylor, Perot, and others, his followers, at 
the same time that he boasts of several committed by himself 
by Simpson, and others.^ But how does he confute them, and 
guard others against them ? Why, he calls their authors ranters, 
and charges them with running out Now what kind of argu- 
ment is this in the mouth of G. Fox against any fanatic, how- 
ever, furious, when he himself has taught him, that he is to listen 
to the spirit of God within himself, in preference to the authority 
of any man and of all men, and even of the Gospel ? G. Fox 
was not more strongly moved to believe that he was the messen- 
ger of Christ, than J. Naylor was to believe that he himself was 
Christ : nor had he a firmer conviction that the Lord forbade 
hat-worship, as it is called, out of prayer, than J. Perot]| and his 
company had that they were forbidden to use it in prayer.*^ 
Secondly, with respect to the excesses and crimes commited by 
many Catholics, of different ranks, as well as by other men, in 
all ages, I answer, that these have been committed, not in virtue 
of their rule of faith and conduct, but in direct opposition to it, as 
will be more fully seen, when we come to treat of that rule ; 
whereas the extravagancies of the Quakers were the immediate 
dictates of the imaginary spirit which they followed as their 
guide. Lastly, when the doctors of the Catholic church teach 

* An English Benedictine Monk, author of Sancta Sophia, which is 
quoted at length by Barclay. 

t Apology, p. 351. i See Journal of G. Fox, passim. 

§ Speaking of James Naylor he says, «« I spake with him, for I saw he 
I was out and wrong ; he slighted what I said, and was dark and much out." 
Journ. p. 220. 

II Journ. p. 310. This and another friend, John Love, went on a mission 
to Rome, to convert the Pope to Quakerism ; but his Holiness not under- 
standing English, when they addressed him with sme coarse English 
epithets in St. Peter's church, they had no better success than a female 
friend, Mary Fisher, had, who went into Greece to convert the Great 
Turk. See Sewel's Hist. 

IT " Now he (Fox) found also that the Lord forbade him to put off' his hat 
to any men either high or low ; and he required to Thou and Thee every man 
! and wnraan, without distinction, and not to bid people Good morrom, or 
I Good evening ; neither might he bow, or scrape with his leg " Sewel's 
Hist. p. 18. See there a Dissertation on Hat-worship. 



58 



Letter VII 



us, after the inspired writers, not to extinguish, but to walk in the 
spirit of God, they tell us, at the same time, that this holy spirit 
invariably and necessarily leads us to hear the church, and to 
practise that humility, obedience, and those other virtues, which 
she constantly inculcates : so that, if it were possible for an 
angel from heaven to preach another Gospel than what we have 
received, he ought to be rejected, as a spirit, of darkness. Even 
Luther, when the Anabaptists first broached many of the leading 
tenets of the Quakers, required them to demonstrate their pre- 
tended commission from God, by incontestable miracles,* or 
submit to be guided by his appointed ministers. 

I have now to notice the letter of Mr. Topham.f Some of 
his objections have already been answered, in my remarks on 
Mr. Rankin's letter. What I find particular, in the former, is 
the following passage : " Is it possible to go against conviction 
and facts ? namely, the experience that very many serious Chris- 
tians feel, in this day of God's power, that they are made par- 
takers of Christ and of the Holy Ghost ? Of very many that 
hear him saying to the melting heart, with his still, small, yet 
penetrating and renovating voice, Thy sins are forgiven thee: 
be thou clean : thy faith hath made thee whole ? If an exterior 
proof were wanting, to show the certainty of this interior con- 
viction, I might refer to the conversion and holy life of those 
who have experienced it." — To this I answer, that the facts 
and the conviction which your friend talks of, amount to noth- 
ing more than a certain strength of imagination and warmth of 
sentiment, which may be natural, or may be produced by that 
lying spirit, whom God permits sometimes to go forth, and to 
persuade the presumptuous to their destruction. 1 Kings xxii. 
22. I presume Mr. Topham will allow, that no experience he 
has felt or witnessed exceeds that of Bockhold, or Hacket, or 
Naylor, mentioned above, who, nevertheless, were confessedly 
betrayed by it into most horrible blasphemies and atrocious 
crimes. The virtue most necessary for enthusiasts, because the 
most remote from them, is an humble diffidence in themselves. 
When Oliver Cromwell was on his death-bed, Dr. Godwin be- 
ing present, among other ministers, prophesied that the Pro- 
tector would recover : death, however, almost immediately en- 
suing, the Puritan, instead of acknowledging his error, cast the 

* Sleidan. 

t It was originally intended to inseri these and the other letters of the 
same description : but as this would az.ve rendered the work too bulky, 
and as the whole of the objections may be gathered from the answers in 
them, thit intention has been abandoned. 



Letter VIII. 



59 



6 ame upon Almighty God, exclaiming, " Lord, thou hast de- 
csived us and we have been deceived !"* With respect to the 
alleged purity of Antinomian saints, I would refer to the his- 
tory of the lives and deaths of many of our English regicides, 
and to the gross immoralities of numberless Justified Metho- 
dists, described by Fletcher, in his Cheeks to Antinomianism.j 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER VIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
second fallacious rule. 

Dear Sir, 

I TAKE it for granted, that my answers to Messrs. Rankm 
and Topham have been communicated to you, and I hope that 
they, in conjunction with my preceding letters, have convinced 
those gentlemen, of what you, dear sir, have all along, been 
convinced, namely, of the inconsistency and fanaticism of every 
pretension on the part of individuals, now-a-days, to a new and 
particular inspiration, as a rule of faith. The question which 
remains for our inquiry is, whether the rule or method prescribed 
by the church of England and other more rational classes of 
Protestants, or that prescribed by the Catholic church, is the 
one designed by our Saviour Christ for finding out his true 
religion. You say that the whole of this is comprised in the 
written word of God, or the Bible, and that every individual is a 
judge for himself of the sense of the Bible. Hence, in every 
religious controversy, more especially since the last change of 
the inconstant Chillingworth,J Catholics have been stunned with 
the cries of jarring Protestants sects and individuals, proclaiming 
that, the Bible, the Bible alone is their religion : and hence, more 

* See Birch's Life of Archbishop Tillotson, p. 17. 

t This - candid and able writer says, " The Puritans and first Quakers 
soon got over the edge of internal activity into the smooth and easy path 
of Laodicean formality. Most of us, called Methodists, have already fol- 
lowed them. We fall asleep under the bewitching power ; we dream 
j strange dreams ; our salvation is finished; we have got above legality ; we 
have attained Christian liberty ; we have nothing to do ; our covenant is 
sure." Vol. ii. p. 233. He refers to several instances of the most flagitious 
conduct which human nature is capable of, in persons who had attained to 
what they call finished salvation. 

% Chillingworth was first a Protestant, of the establishment : he next be- 
came a Catholic, and studied in one of our seminaries. He then returned, 
/n part, to his former creed : and last of all, he gave into Socinianism, which 
his writings greatly promoted. 



60 



Letter VIII. 



particularly at the present day, Bibles are distributed by hun- 
dreds of thousands, throughout the empire and the four quarters 
of the globe, as the adequate means appointed by Christ, of uni- 
ting and reforming Christians and of converting Infidels. On 
the other hand, we Catholics hold that the Word of God in 
general both written and unwritten, in other words, the Bible and 
tradition, taken together, constitute the rule of faith or method Jo? 
finding out the true religion : and that, besides the rule itself, he 
has provided in his holy church, a living, speaking judge to watch 
over it and explain it in all matters of controversy. That the 
latter, and not the former, is the true rule, 1 trust I shall be able 
to prove as clearly as I have proved that private inspiration 
does not constitute it : and this I shall prove by means of the 
two maxims I have, on that occasion, made use of ; namely, the 
rule of faith, appointed by Christ must be CERTAIN and UN- 
ERRING, that is to say, it must be one which is not liable to 
lead any rational and sincere inquirer into inconsistency or error : 
secondly, this rule must be UNIVERSAL ; that is to say, it 
must be proportioned to the abilities and circumstances of the great 
bulk of mankind. 

I. If Christ had intended that all mankind should learn his 
religion from a book, namely, The New Testament, he himselt 
would have written that book, and would have laid it down, as 
the first and fundamental precept of his religion, the obligation 
of learning to read it ; whereas, he never wrote any thing at all, 
unless perhaps the sins of the Pharisees with his finger upon 
the dust, John viii. 6.* It does not even appear that he gave 
his apostles any command to write the Gospels ; though he re- 
peatedly and emphatically commanded them to preach it, [Matt, 
x.) and that to all the nations of the earth, Matt, xxviii. 19. — 
In this ministry they all of them spent their lives, preaching the 
religion of Christ in every country, from Judea to Spain, in one 
direction, and to India in another ; every where establishing 
churches, and commending their doctrine to faithful men who 
should be fit to teach others also. 2. Tim. ii. 2. Only a part of 
them wrote any thing, and what these did write was. for the 
most part, addressed to particular persons or congregations, and 
on particular occasions. The ancient fathers tell us that St. 
Matthew wrote his Gospel at the particular request of the Chris 
tians of Palestine,! and that St. Mark composed his at the desire 

* It is agreed upon among the learned, that the supposed letter of Christ to 
Abgarus, king of Edessa, quoted by Eusebius, Hisfc. Eccl.d. 1, is spurious 

t Euseb. 1. 3. Hist. Ecel. Chrysos in Mat. Horn .1 Iren. 1. 3. c. I. Hieron 
the Vir. Illust 



Letter VIII. 



6 



of thot- 5 at Rjme.* St. Luke addressed his Gospel to an indi- 
vidual, Theophilus, having written it, says the holy evangelist, 
because it seemed good to him to do so. Luke i. 3. St. John wrote 
the last of the Gospels in compliance with the petition of the 
clergy and people of Lesser Asia,f to prove, in particular, the 
divinity of Jesus Christ, which Cerinthus, Ebion, and other here- 
tics began then to deny. No doubt the evangelists were moved 
by the Holy Ghost to listen to the requests of the faithful in 
writing their respective Gospels ; nevertheless, there is nothing 
in these occasions, nor in the Gospels themselves, which indicates 
that any one of them, or all of them together, contain an entire, 
detailed, and clear exposition of the whole religion of Jesus Christ. 
The canonical Epistles in the New Testament, show the par- 
ticular occasions on which they were written, and prove, as the 
bishop of Lincoln observes, that " they are not to be considered 
as regular treatises on the Christian Religion."J 

II. In supposing our Saviour to have appointed his bare writ- 
ten word for the rule of our faith, without any authorized judge 
to decide on the unavoidable controversies growing out of it, 
you would suppose that he has acted differently from what com- 
mon sense has dictated to all other ligislators. For where do 
we read of a legislator, who, after dictating a code of laws, ne- 
glected to appoint judges and magistrates to decide their mean- 
ing, and to enforce obedience to such decisions ? You, dear 
sir, have the means of knowing what would be the consequence 
of leaving any act of parliament, concerning taxes, or inclosures, 
or any other temporal concerns, to the interpretation of the indi 
viduals whom it regards. Alluding to the Protestant rule, the 
illustrious Fenelon has said, " It is better to live without any 
law, than to have laws which all men are left to interpret accord- 
ing to their several opinions and interests. "§ The bishop of 
London appears sensible of this truth, as far as regards temporal 
affairs, where he writes, " In matters of property indeed, some 
decision, right or wrong, must be made : society could not subsis' 
without it :"|| just as if peace and unity were less necessary in 
the one sheepfold of the one shepherd, the church of Christ, than 
they are in civil society ! 

III. The fact is, this method of determining religious ques- 
tions by Scripture only, according to each individual's interpre- 
tation, whenever and wherever it has been adopted, has always 
produced endless and incurable dissentions, and of course er- 

* Euseb. 1. 2. c. 15. Hist Eccl. Epiph. Hieron. de Vir. Illust. 

t Euseb. 1. G Hist. Eccl. Hieron. t Elem. of Christ. Rel. vol. i. p. 277 

§ Life of Archbp. Fenelon, by Ramsey. II Brief Confur. p. 18. 



62 



Letter VIII. 



rors ; because truth is one, while errors are numberless. TH« 
ancient fathers of the church reproached the sects of heretic* 
and schismatics with their endless internal divisions ; " See, 
says St. Augustine, " into how many morsels those are divided, 
who have divided themselves from the unity of the church !"* 
Another father writes, " It is natural for error to be ever chang- 
ing.! The disciples have the same right in this matter that 
their masters had." 

To speak now of the Protestant reformers. No sooner had 
their progenitor, Martin Luther, set up the tribunal of his pri- 
vate judgment on the sense of Scripture, in opposition to the 
authority of the church, ancient and modern,;); than his disci- 
ples, proceeding on his principle, undertook to prove, from plain 
texts of the Bible, that his own doctrine was erroneous, and that 
the Reformation itself wanted reforming. Carlostad,§ Zuin- 
glius,|| CEcolompadius, Muncer,T and a hundred more of his 
followers wrote and preached against him and against, each other, 
with the utmost virulence, still each of them professing to 
ground his doctrine and conduct on the written word of God 
alone. In vain did Luther claim a superiority over them ; in 
vain did he denounce hell-fire against them ;** in vain did he 
threaten to return back to the Catholic religion :tt he had put the 
Bible into each man's hand to explain it for himself : this his 
followers continued to do in open defiance of him ;\\ till their 

* St. Aug. 1 Tertul. de Praescrip. 

t This happened in June, 1520, on his doctrine being censured by the 
Pope. Till this time, he had submitted it to the judgment of the Holy See 

§ He was Luther's first disciple of distinction, being archdeacon of Wit 
temberg. He declared against Luther in 1521. 

II Zuinglius began the reformation in Switzerland, sometime after Luther 
began it in Germany ; but taught such doctrine, that the latter termed him 
a pagan, and said, he despaired of his salvation. 

V He was the disciple of Luther, and founder of the Anabaptists, who 
in quality of the just, maintained that the property of the wicked belongec 
to them, quoting the second beatiiude : blessed are the meek for they shaL 
possess the land. Muncer wrote to the several princes of Germany, to give 
up their possessions to him ; and, at the head of forty thousand of his fol 
lowers, marched to enforce this requisition. 

** He says to them, " I can defend you against the Pope — but when the 
devil shall urge against you (the heads of these changes) at your death, 
these passages of Scripture, they ran and I did not send them, how shall you 
withstand him ! He will plunge you headlong into hell." — Oper. torn. vii. 
fol. 274. 

tt " If you continue in these measures of your common deliberations, I 
will recant whatever I have written or said, and leave you. Mind what I 
say." — Oper. torn. vii. fol 276. edit. Wittemb. 

tt See the curious challenge of Luther to Carlostad to write a book 
against the real presence, when one wishes the other to break his nech, and 
the other ietorts, may I see thee b/oken on the wheeL — Var;at. b. ii. n. 12. 



Letter VIII. 



63 



mutual contradictions and discords became so numerous and 
scandalous, as to overwhelm the thinking part of them with grief 
and confusion.* 

To point out some few of the particular variations alluded to , 
for to enumerate them all, would require a work, vastly more 
voluminous than that of Bossuet on this subject : it is well 
known that Luther's fundamental principle was that of imputed 
justice, to the exclusion of all acts of virtue and good works 
whatsoever. His favourite disciple and bottle-companion, Ams- 
dorf, carried this principle so far as to maintain that good works 
are a hinderance to salvation.] In vindication of his fundamen- 
tal tenet, Luther vaunts as follows : This article shall remain, 
in spite of all the world : it is I, Martain Luther, evangelist, 
who say it : let no one therefore attempt to infringe it, neither 
the emperor of the Romans, nor of the Turks, nor of the Tar- 
tars ; neither the Pope, nor the monks, nor the nuns, nor the 
kings, nor the princes, nor all the devils in hell. If they attempt 
it, may the infernal flames be their recompense. What I say 
here is to be taken for an inspiration of the Holy Ghost — 
Notwithstanding, however, these terrible threats and impreca- 
tions of their master, Melancthon, with the rest of the Luther- 
ans, immediately after his death, abandoned this article, and 
went over to the opposite extreme of Semipelagianism ; name- 
ly, they not only admitted the necessity of good works, but they 
also taught that these are prior to God's grace. Still on this 
single subject, Osiander, a Lutheran, says, " there are twenty 
several opinions, all drawn from the Scripture, and held by dif- 
ferent members of the Augsburg, or Lutheran Confession."^ 

Nor has the unbounded license of explaining Scripture, each 
one in his own way, which Protestants claim, been confined to 

* Capito, minister of Strasburg, writing to Farel, pastor of Geneva, thus 
complains to him : " God has given me to understand the mischief we have 
done, by our precipitancy in breaking with the pope, &c. The people say 
to us, I know enough of the Gospel: I can read it for myself. 1 have no need 
of you." Inter Epist. Calvini. In the same tone, Dudith writes to his 
friend Beza, «« Our people are carried away with every wind of doctrine. 
If you know what their religion is to-day, you cannot tell what it will be 
to-morrow. In what single point are those churches which have declared 
war against the pope agreed among themselves 1 There is not one point 
which is not held by some of them as an article of faith, and by others as 
an impiety." In the same sentiment, Calvin, writing to Melanethon, says, 
" It is of great importance that the divisions, which subsist among us, should 
not be known {o future ages : for nothing can be more ridiculous than that 
we, who have broken off from the whole world, should have agreed so ill 
among ourselves, from rhe very beginning of the Reformation." 

i Mush im Hist, by Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 328. ed. 171K). 

I Visit. Saxon. § Archdeacon . lacklmtn's Confessional, u. 16 



64 



Letter VIII. 



mere errors and dissensions ; it has also caused mutual persecu- 
tion and bloodshed ;* it has produced tumults, rebellions, and an- 
archy, beyond recounting. Dr. Hey asserts, that " The misin- 
terpretation of Scripture brought on the miseries of the civil 
war ;"f and lord Clarendon, Madox, and other writers, show that 
there was not a crime committed by the Puritan rebels, in the 
course of it, which they did not profess to justify by texts and in- 
stances drawn from the sacred volumes. :£ Leland Bergier, Baruel, 
Robison, and Kett, abundantly prove that the poisonous plant of 
Infidelity, which has produced such dreadful effects of late years 
on the continent, was transplanted thither from this Protestant 
island ; and that it was produced, nourished, and increased to 
its enormous growth by that principle of private judgment in mat- 
ters of religion, which is the very foundation of the Reformation. 
Let us hear the two last mentioned authors, both of them Pro- 
testant clergymen, on this important subject. " The spirit of 
free inquiry," says Kett, quoting Robison, " was the great boast 
of the Protestants, and their only support against the Catholics ; 
securing them, both in their civil and religious rights. It was, 
therefore, encouraged by their governments, and sometimes in- 
dulged to excess. In the progress of this contest, their own 
Confessions did not escape censure ; and it was asserted, that 
the Reformation, which these confessions express, was not com- 
plete. Further reformation was proposed. The Scriptures, the 
foundation of their faith, were examined by Clergymen of very 
different capacities, dispositions, and views, till, by explain- 
ing, correcting, allegorizing, and otherwise twisting the Bible, 
men's minds had hardly any thing to rest on, as a doctrine 
of revealed religion. This encouraged others to go further, and 
to say that revelation was a solecism, as plainly appears by 
the irreconcilable differences among the enlighteners of the pub- 
lic, as they were called ; and that man had nothing to trust to. 
but the dictates of natural reason. Another set of writers, pro- 
ceeding from this, as from a point settled, proscribed all religion 
whatever, and openly taught the doctrines of Materialism and 
Atheism. Most of these innovations were the work of Protestant 
divines, from the causes that I have mentioned. But the progress 
of Infidelity was much accelerated by the establishment of a 

* See Letters to a Prebendary, chapter, Persecution. Numberless other 
proofs of Brotestants persecuting, not only Catholics, but also their fellow 
Protestants, to deaih, on account of their religious opinions, can tre» ad' 
duced. 

t Dr. Hey's Theological Lectures, vol. i. p. 77. 

* Hist, of Civ. War." Examin. of Neals Hist, tf Puritans. 



Letter VIII. 



65 



Philantkr opine, or academy of general education in the princi- 
pality of Anhalt-Dessau. The prcfessed object of this institu- 
tion was to unite the three Christian communions of Germany, 
and to make it possible for the members of them all not only to 
live amicably, and to worship God in the same church, but even 
to communicate together. This attempt gave rise to much spec- 
ulation and refinement ; and the proposal for the amendment of 
the formulas, and the instructions from the pulpit, were prose- 
cuted with so much keenness, that the ground-work of Christi 
anity was refined and refined, till it vanished altogether, leavins 
Deism, or natural, or, as it was called, philosophical religion, u 
its place. The Lutherans and Calvinists, prepared by the caust, 
before mentioned, to become dupes to this masterpiece of art, wen 
enticed by the specious liberality of the scheme, and the partic 
ular attention which it promised to the morals of youth : but no 
one Roman Catholic could Basedow allure to his seminary of prac 
tical ethics."* 

IV. You have seen, dear sir, to what endless errors and im 
pieties, the principle of private interpretation of Scripture, n»> 
less than that of private inspiration of faith, has conducted men, 
and, of course, is ever liable to conduct them; which circum- 
stance, therefore, proves, that it cannot be the rule for bringing 
us to religious truths, acsording to the self-evident maxim stated 
above. Nor is it to be imagined, that, previously to the forma- 
tion of the different national churches, and other religious asso- 
ciations, which took place in several parts of Europe, at what 
is called " The Reformation," the Scriptures were diligently 
consulted by the founders of them, and that the ancient system 
of religion was exploded, and the new systems adopted, conform- 
ably with their apparent sense, as Protestant controvertists wouid 
have you believe. No, sir, princes and statesmen had a great 
, deal more to do with these changes, than theologians ; and mou* 
of the parties concerned in them were evidently pushed on by 
j very different motives from those of religion. As to Martin Lu- 
j ther, he testifies, and calls God to witness the truth of his testi- 
i mony, that it was not willingly, (that is, not from a previous dis- 
i covery of the falsehood of his religion) but from accident, (name- 
i ly, a quarrel with the Dominican friars, and afterwards with the 
Pope) that he fell into his broils about religion.! With respect 

* Robison's Proofs of a Conspiracy against all Religions, &c. Rett's 
History the Interpreter of prophecy, Vol. ii. p. 158. 

t Casu non voluntate in has turrnas incidi : Deum testor." — The Pro- 
testant historian, Mosheim, with whom Hume agrees, admits that severa/ 
of the principal agents in this revolution " were actuated more by the im 
6* 



66 Letter VIII 

to the Reformation in our own country, we all know lhat Henry 
VIII., who took the first step towards it, was, at the beginning 
of his reign, so zealous against it that he wrote a book, which 
he dedicated to Pope Leo X. In opposition to it, and in return, 
obtained for himself and his successors, from this pontiff, the 
title of Defender of the faith. Becoming afterwards enamoured 
of one of his queen's maids of honour, Ann Bullen, and the reign- 
ing Pope refusing to sanction an adulterous marriage with her, he 
caused a statute to be passed, abrogating the Pope's supremacy, 
and declaring himself supreme head of the church of England* 
Thus he plunged the nation into schism, and opened a way for 
every kind of heresy and impiety. In short, nothing is more 
evident than that the king's inordinate passion, and not the word 
of God, was the rule followed in this first important change of 
our national religion. The unprincipled duke of Somerset, who 
next succeeded to supreme power in the church and state, under 
the shadow of his youthful nephew, Edward VI. for his own 
ambitious and avaricious purposes, pushed on the Reformation, 
so called, much further than it had yet been carried. He sup- 
pressed the remaining colleges and hospitals, which the profli- 
gacy of Henry had spared, converting their revenues to his own 
and his associates' uses. He forced Cranmer and the other 
bishops, to take out fresh commissions for governing their dio- 
ceses during his nephew's, that is, his own good pleasure.] 

pulse of passions and views of interests than by a zeal for true religion." 
Maclaine, vol. iv. p. 135. He had before acknowledged that king Gustavus 
introduced Lutheranism into Sweden, in opposition to the clergy and 
bishops, " not only as agreeable to the genius and spirit of the Gospel, but 
also as favourable to the temporal state and political constitution of the 
Swedish dominions," pp. 79, 80. He adds, that Cristiern, who introduced 
the reformation into Denmark, was animated by no other motive than those 
of ambition and avarice, p. 82. Grotius, another Protestant, testifies that 
it was "sedition and violence which gave birth to the Reformation in his 
country," Holland. Append, de Antichristo. The same was the case m 
France, Geneva, and Scotland. It is to be observed, that in all these 
countries the reformers, as soon as they got the upper hand, became violent 
persecutors of the Catholics. Bergeir defies Protestants to name so much 
as a town or village in which, when they became masters of it, they toler- 
ated a single Catholic. 

* Archbishop Parker records, that the bishops assembled in Synod in 
1531, offered to sign this new title, with the following salvo, " In quantum 
fer Christl leges licet :" but that the king would admit of no such modifica- 
tion. Antiq. Brit. p. 325. In the end, they surrendered the whole of their 
spiritual jurisdiction to him (all except the religious bishop of Rochester, 
Fisher, who was put to death for his refusal) and were content to publish 
Articles of Religion devised by the King's Highness. Heylin Hist, of Re- 
form. Collier, &c. 

1 " Licentiam concedi nus ad nostrum beneplacitun? dumtaxat durati 
ram." Burnet Hist. Ref. Rec. P. II. B. i. N. 2. 



Letter VIII. 



67 



He made a great number of important changes in the public 
worship by his own authority, or that of his visitors ;* and when 
he employed certain bishops and divines in forming fresh arti- 
cles and a new liturgy, he punished them with imprison- 
ment if they were not obsequious to his orders.f He even took 
on himself to alter their work, when sanctioned by parliament, 
in compliment to the church's greatest enemy, Calvin.J After- 
wards, when Elizebeth came to the throne, a new reformation, 
different in its articles and liturgy, from that of Edward VI., was 
set on foot, and moulded, not according to Scripture, but to her 
orders. She deposed all the bishops except one, " the calamity of 
his see," as he was called and she required the new ones, 
whom she appointed, to renounce certain exercises, which they 
declared to be agreeable to the Word of God,\\ but which she 
found not to agree with her system of politics. She even in full 
parliament, threatened to depose them all, if they did not act con- 
formably to her views. 1[ 

. V. The more strictly the subject is examined, the more clear- 
ly it will appear, that it was not in consequence of any investi- 
gation of the Scriptures, either public or private, that the ancient 
Catholic religion was abolished, and one or other of the new 
Protestant religions set up, in the different northern kingdoms 
and states of Europe, but in consequence of the politics of prin- 
ces and statesmen, the avarice of the nobility and gentry, and the 
irreligion and licentiousness of the people. I will even advance 
a step further, and affirm that there is no appearance of any in- 
dividual Protestant, to whatever sect he belongs, having formed 

* See the Injunctions of the Council to Preachers, published before the 
parliament met, concerning the mass in the Latin language, prayers for 
the dead, &c. See also the order sent to the primate againsl palms, ashes, 
&c. in Heylin, Burnet and Collier. The boy Edward VI. just thirteen 
years old, was taught by his uncle to proclaim as follows : " We would 
not have our subjects so much to mistake our judgment, &c. as though we 
could not discern what is to be done, &c. God be praised, we know what, 
by his word, is fit to be redressed," Collier, vol. ii. p. 246. 

t The bishops Heath and Gardiner were both imprisoned for non-com- 
pliance. 

t Heylin complains bitterly of Calvin's pragmatical spirit, in quarrelling 
with the English liturgy, and soliciting the protector to alter it. Preface 
to Hist, of Reform. His letters to Somerset on the subject may be seen 
'n Fox's Acts and Monum. 
§ Anthony Kitchen, so called by Godwin, De Praesul, and Camden. 
I! This took plaoe with respect to what was termed prophesying , then 
practised by many Protestants, sad defended by archbishop Grindal and 
j tb" other bishops, as agreeable to God's word : nevertheless, the queen 
j i' iged them to suppress it. Col. Eccl. Bist P. II. p. 554, &c. 

{ See her curious speech in parliament, Mar. 25, 1585, in Stow's Annala 



68 



Letter VIII. 



his creed by the rule of Scripture alone. For do you. sir, really 
believe that those persons of your communion, whom you see 
the most diligent and devout in turning over their Bibles, have 
really found out in them the Thirty-nine Articles, or any other 
creed which they happen to profess ? To judge more certainly 
of this matter, I wish those gentlemen who are the most zeal- 
ous and active in distributing Bibles among the Indians, and Af- 
ricans, in their different countries, would procure, from some 
half dozen of the most intelligent and serious of their proselytes, 
who have heard nothing of the Christian faith by any other means 
than their Bibles, a summary of what they respectively under- 
stand to be the doctrine and the morality taught in that sacred 
volume. What inconsistent and nonsensical symbols should we 
not witness ! The truth is, Protestants are tutored from their in- 
fancy, by the help of catechisms and creeds, in the systems of 
their respective sects ; they are guided by their parents and 
masters, and are influenced by the opinions and example of those 
with whom they live and converse, some particular texts of 
scripture are strongly impressed upon their minds, and others of 
an apparent different meaning, are kept out of their view, or glos- 
sed over ; and above all, it is constantly inculcated to them, that 
their religion is built upon Scripture alone ; hence, when they 
actually read the Scriptures, they fancy they see there what 
they have been otherwise taught to believe ; the Lutheran for 
example, that Christ is really present in the sacrament ; the Cai- 
vinist, that he is as far distant from " it as heaven is from earth ;" 
the churchman, that baptism is necessary for infants ; the Bap- 
tist, that it is impiety to confer it upon them ; and so of all the 
other forty sects of Protestants, enumerated by Evans, in his 
Sketch of the different Denominations of Christians, and of twice 
forty other sects, whom he omits to mention. 

When I remarked that our blessed Master Jesus Christ wrote 
no part of the New Testament himself, and gave no orders to 
his apostles to write it, I ought to have added that, if he had 
intended it, together with the Old Testament, to be the sole rule 
of religion, he would have provided means for their being able 
to follow it ; knowing, as he certainly did, that ninety-nine in 
every hundred, or rather nine hundred and ninety-nine in every 
thousand, in different ages and countries, would not be able to 
read at all, and much less to comprehend a page of the sacred 
writings : yet no such means were provided by him : nor has he 
so much as enjoined it to his followers in general to study letters. 

Another observation on this subject, and a very obvious one 
is, that among those Christians, who profess that the Bible alone 



Letter VIII. 



69 



' is the rule of their religion, there ought to be no articles, no 
catechisms, no sermons, nor other instructions. True it is, that 
' the abolition of these, however incompatible they are with the 
1 rule itself, would quickly undermine the established church, as 
its clergy now begin to understand, and, if universally carried 

• into effect, would in the end, efface the whole doctrine and mo- 
rality of the Gospel :* but this consequence only shows more 

i clearly the falsehood of that exclusive rule. In fact, the most 
■ enlightened Protestants find themselves here in a dilemma, and 
1 are obliged to say and unsay, to the amusement of some persons, 
and the pity of others.f They cannot abandon the rule of the 
I Bible alone, as explained by each one for himself, without pro- 
! claiming their guilt in refusing to hear the Catholic church ; 

• and they cannot adhere to it, without opening the flood-gates to 
1 all the impiety and immorality of the age upon their own com- 
I munion. — 1 shall have occasion hereafter to notice the claims of 
! the established church to authority, in determining the sense of 
| Scripture, as well as in their religious controversies : in the 

mean time, I cannot but observe that her most able defenders 
are frequently obliged to abandon their own, and adopt the 
1 Catholic rule of faith. The judicious Hooker, in his defence of 
' the church of England, writes thus, " Of this we are right sure, 
that nature, Scripture, and experience itself, have taught the 
world to seek for the ending of contentions, by submitting to 
■: some judicial and definite sentence, whereunto neither party 
that contendeth may, under any pretence or colour, refuse to 
'i stand. This must needs be effectual and strong. As for other 
' means, without this, they seldom prevail. "| Another most clear- 
1 headed writer, and renowned defender of the establishment, 
1 whom I had the happiness of being acquainted with, Dr. Balguy,^ 

I * The Protestant writers, Kett and Robinson, have shown, in the passage 
( above quoted, how the principle of private judgment tends to undermine 
I Christianity at large ; and archdeacon Hook, in his late Charge, shows, by 
' an exact statement of capital convictions in different years, that the in- 
! crease of immorality has kept pace with that of the Bible societies, 
j t One of the latest instances of the distress in question was exhibited by 
I the Rt. Rev. Dr. Marsh. In his publication, The Inquiry, p. 4, he said, 
very truly, that "the poor (who constitute the bulk of mankind) cannot 
' without assistance, understand the Scriptures." Being congratulated on 
(I this important, yet unavoidable concession, by the Rev. Mr. Gandolphy, 
[I he tacks about, in a public letter to that gentleman, and says, that what he 
. wrote, in his Inquiry, concerning the necessity of a further rule than mere 
Scripture only, regards the establishment of religion, not the truth of it: 
ust as if that rule were sufficient to conduct the people to the truth of re 
i ligion, while he expressly says they cannot understand it. 
1 X Hooker's Eccles. Politic. Pref. art. 6. 

§ Discourses on various Subjects, by T. Calguy, D. D. archdeacon and 



70 



Letter VIII. 



thus expresses himself, in a Charge to the clergy of his arch 
deaconry : " The opinions of the people are and must be 
founded more on authority than reason. Their parents, their 
teachers, their governors, in a great measure, determine for 
them, what they are to believe and what to practise. The same 
doctrines uniformly taught, the same rites constantly performed, 
make such an impression on their minds, that they hesitate as 
little in admitting the articles of their faith, as in receiving the 
most established maxims of common life."* With such testi- 
monies before your eyes, can you, dear sir, imagine that the 
bulk of Protestants have formed their religion by the standard of 
Scripture ? He goes on to say, speaking of controverted points : 
" Would you have them (the people) think for themselves 1 
Would you have them hear and decide the controversies of the 
learned ? Would you have them enter into the depths of criti- 
cism, of logic, of scholastic divinity ? You might as well expect 
them to compute an eclipse, or decide between the Cartesian 
and Newtonian philosophy. Nay, I will go farther : for 1 take 
upon myself to say, there are more men capable, in some com- 
petent degree, of understanding Newton's philosophy, than ol 
forming any judgment at all concerning the abstruser questions 
in metaphysics and theology." Yet the persons, of whom the 
doctor particularly speaks, were all furnished with bibles ; and 
the abstruse questions, which he refers to, are : " Whether 
Christ did or did not come down from' heaven ?" whether " he 
died or did not die for the sins of the world ?" whether " he «ent 
his Holy Spirit to assist and comfort us, or whether he did not 
send him T't The learned doctor elsewhere expresses himsell 
still more explicitly on the subject of Scripture, without church 
authority. He is combating the dissenters, but his weapons art 
evidently as fatal to his own church as to theirs. " It has long 
been held among them, that Scripture only is the rule and test 
of all religious ordinances ; and that human authority is* to be 
altogether excluded. Their ancestors,' I believe, would have 
been not a little embarrassed with their own maxim, if they had 
not possessed a singular talent of seeing every thing in Scripture 
which they had a mind to see. Almost every sect could find 
there its own peculiar form of church government ; and while 

prebendary of Winchester. Some of these discourses were preached at 
the consecration ot bishops, and published by order of the archbishop ; 
some in Charges to the Clergy. The whole of them are dedicated to the 
king whom the writer thanks for naming him to a high dignity (the bishop* 
ric of Gloucester,) and for permitting him to decline accepting of it. 

* Discourses on various Subjects, bv T. Balguy, D. D. p. 257 

t Ibid. 



Letter IX. 



71 



they enforced only their own imaginations, they believed themselves 
to be executing the decrees of heaven."* 

I conclude this long letter, with a passage to the present pur- 
pose from our admired .theological poet : 

" As long as words a different sense will bear, 
And each may be his own interpreter, 
Our airy faith will no foundation find : 
The words a weathercock for every wind."§ 

I am, Dear Sir, &c. J. M. 



LETTER IX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
second false rule. 

Dear Sir, 

AFTER all that I have written concerning the rule of faith, 
adopted by yourself and other more rational Protestants, 1 have 
only yet treated of the extrinsic arguments against it. I now, 
therefore proceed to investigate its intrinsic nature, in order to 
show more fully the inadequacy, or rather the falsehood of it. 

When an English Protestant gets possession of an English 
Bible, printed by Thomas Basket, or other " printer to the king's 
most excellent majesty," he takes it in hand with the same con- 
fidence, as if he had immediately received it from the Almighty 
himself, as Moses received the Tables of the Law on Mount 
Sina, amidst thunder and lightening. But how vain is this 
confidence, whilst he adheres to the foregoing rule of faith ! 
How many questionable points does he assume, as proved, which 
cannot be proved, without relinquishing his own principles and 
adopting ours ! 

1. Supposing then you, dear sir, to be the Protestant I have 
been speaking of; 1 begin with asking you, by what means have 
you learnt the canon of Scripture, that is to say, which are the 
books which have been written by divine inspiration ; or indeed 
that any books at all, have been so written ? You cannot dis- 
cover either of these things by your rule, because the Scripture, 
as your great authority Hooker shows, ;f and Chilling worth al- 
lows cannot uear testimony to itself. You will say that the Old 
Testament was written by Moses and the prophets, and the 
New Testament by the apostles of Christ and the evangelists. 
But admitting all this ; it does not of itself prove that they aU 
ways wrote, or indeed that they ever wrote, under the influ- 

* Discourse VII. p. 126. t Dryden's Hind and Panther, Tart I. 

t Eccles. Polit. b. Hi. sec 8. 



n 



Letter IX. 



ence of inspiration. They were, by nature, fallible men : ho\» 
have you learnt that they were infallible writers 1 In the nexl 
place, you receive books, as canonical parts of the Testament 
which were not written by apostles at all ; namely, flie Gospels 
of St. Mark and St. Luke, whilst you reject an authentic work 
of great excellence,* written by one who is termed in Scripture 
an apostle J and declared to be full of the Holy Ghost,% I speak 
of St. Barnaby. Lastly, you have no sufficient authority for 
asserting that the sacred volumes are the genuine composition 
of the holy personages whose names they bear, except the tra- 
dition and living voice of the Catholic church, since numerous 
apochryphal prophecies and spurious gospels and epistles, under 
the same or equally venerable names, were circulated in the 
church, during its early ages, and accredited by different learned 
writers and holy fathers : while some of the really canonical 
books were rejected or doubted of by them. In short, it was 
not until the end of the fourth century, that the genuine canon 
of Holy Scripture was fixed : and then it was fixed by the tra- 
dition and authority of the church, declared in the Third Council 
of Carthage and a Decretal of P. Innocent I. Indeed, it is so 
clear that the canon of Scripture is built on the tradition of the 
church, that most learned Protestants,^ with Luther himself, 
have|| been forced to acknowledge it, in terms almost as strong 
as those in the well known declaration of St. Augustine.lf 

II. Again, supposing the divine authority of the Sacred Books 
themselves to be established ; how do you known that the copies 
of them translated and printed in your Bible are authentic ? It 
is agreed upon amongst the learned, that the original text of Mo- 
ses and the ancient prophets was destroyed, with the temple and 
city of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Nebuchadnezzar;** 
and, though they were replaced by authentic copies, at the end 
of the Babylonish captivity, through the pious care of the proph- 
et Esdras or Ezra, yet that these also perished in the subsequent 
persecution of Antiochus ;ff from which time we have no evi- 
dence of the authenticity of the Old Testament till this was sup- 
plied by Christ and his apostles, who transmitted it to the church. 

* St. Barnaby. See Grabe's Spicileg. and Cotlerus's Collect. 

tActsxiv. 24. iActsxi. 24. 

§ Hooker, Eecl. Polit. C. iii. S. 8. Dr. Lardner, in Bishop Watson's 
Col. vol. ii. p. 20. ^ , t, 

II " We are obliged to yield many things to the Papists— that with them 
is the word of God, which we received from them ; otherwise we should 
have known nothing at all about it." Comment, on John, c 16. 

M " I should not believe the Gospel itself, if the authority of the Catholic 
church did not oblige me to do so." Contra Epist. Fundam. 

Brett's Dissert, in bishop Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p [>. *t Ibid. 



Letter IX. 



In like manner, granting, for example, that St. Paul wrote an in- 
spired Epistle to the Romans, and another to the Ephesians ; 
yet as the former was intrusted to an individual, the deaconess 
Phebe, to be conveyed by her to its destination,* and the latter 
to his disciple Tychicus,f for the same purpose, it is impossible 
for you to entertain a rational conviction that these Epistles as 
they stand in your Testament, are exactly in the state in which 
they issued from the apostle's pen or that they are his genuine 
Epistles at all, without recurring to the tradition and authority 
of the Catholic church concerning them. To make short of this 
matter, I will not lead you into the labyrinth of Biblical criti- 
cism, nor will 1 show you the endless varieties of readings with 
respect to words and whole passages, which occur in different 
copies of the Sacred Text, but will here content myself with re- 
ferring you to your own Bible Book, as printed by authority 
Look then at psalm xiv, as it occurs in the Book of Common 
Prayer, to which your clergy swear their " consent and assent ;" 
then look at the same psalm in your Bible : you will find four 
whole verses in the former, which are left out of the latter ! 
What will you here say, dear sir ? You must say that your 
church has added to, or else that she has taken away from ) the 
words of this prophecy !\ 

III. But your pains and perplexities concerning your rule of 
faith must not stop even at this point : for though you had de- 
monstrative evidence, that the several books in your Bible are 
canonical and authentic, in the originals, it would still remain 
for you to inquire whether or no they are faithfully translated in 
your English copy. In fact, you are aware that they were writ- 
ten, some of them in Hebrew and some of them in Greek, out of 
which languages they were translated, for the last time, by about 
fifty different men, of various capacities, learning, judgment, opin- 
ions, and prejudices. § In this inquiry, the Catholic church her- 
self can afford you no security to build your faith-upon ; much 
less can any private individuals whosoever. The celebrated 
Protestant divine, Episcopius, was so convinced of the fallibility 
of modern translations, that he wanted all sorts of persons, la- 
bourers, sailors, women, &c. to learn Hebrew and Greek. In- 

* Rom. xvi. See Calmet, &c. t Ephes. vi. 21. 

t The verses in question being quoted by St. Paul, Rom. iii. 13, &c. there 
is no doubt but the common Bible is defective in this passage. — On the 
other hand, the bishop of Lincoln has published his conviction that the 
most important passage in the New Testament, 1 John v. 7, for establish- 
„ng the divinity of Jesus Christ, "is spurious." Elem. of Theo. vol. ii. 
p. 'JO. 

§ See a list of them in Ant. Johnson's Hist. Account. Theo. Collect, p. 95 



74 



Letter IX. 



deed, it is obvious that the sense of the text may depend uy>on 
the choice of a single word in the translation : nay, it sometimes 
depends upon the mere punctuation of a sentence, as may be 
seen below* Can you then, consistently, reject the authority 
of the great universal church, and yet build upon that of some 
obscure translator in the reign of James 1. 1 No, sir ; you must 
yourself have compared your English Bible with the originals, 
and have proved it to be a faithful version, before you can build 
your faith upon it as upon the Word of God. To say one word 
now of the Bibles themselves, which have been published by 
authority, or generally used by Protestants, in this country. 
Those of Tindall, Coverdale, and queen Elizabeth's bishops, 
were so notoriously corrupt, as to cause a general outcry against 
them, among learned Protestants, as well as among Catholics, 
in which the king (James I.) joined himself,! who accordingly 
ordered a new version of it to be made, being the same that is 
now in use, with some few alterations made after the restora- 
tion.:); Now, though these new translators have corrected many 
wilful errors of their predecessors, most of which were levelled 
at Catholic doctrines and discipline, yet they have left a suffi- 
cient number of these behind, for which I do not find that their 
advocates offer any excuse. || 

IV. I will make a further supposition, namely, that you had 
the certainty even of revelation, as the Calvinists used to pre- 
tend they had, that your Bible is not only canonical, authentic, 
and faithful, in its English garb; yet what would all this avail 
you, towards establishing your rule of faith, unless you could be 
equally certain of your understanding the whole of it rightly ? For, 
as the learned Protestant bishop Walton says,TT " The Word of 

* One of the strongest passages for the divinity of Christ is the follow- 
ing, as it is pointed out in the Vulgate : Ex quibus est Christus, secundem 
earnem, qui est super omnia Dens benediclus in scecula. Rom. ix. 5. But 
see how Grotius and Socinus deprive the text of all its strength, by merely 
substituting a point for a comma : Ex quibus est Christus, secundem carncm* 
Qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in scecula. 

t Bishop Watson's Collect, vol. iii. p. 98. t Ibid. 

§ These may be found in the learned Greg. Martin's treatise on the sub- 
ject, and in Ward's Errata ;o the Protestant Bible. 

II Two of these I had occasion to notice, in the Inquiry into the Char 
acter of Ike Irish Catholics, namely, 1 Cor. xi. 27, where the conjunctive 
and is put for the disjunctive or ; and Matt. xix. 11, where cannot is put 
for do not ; to the altering of the sense, in both instances. Now, though 
these corruptions stand in direct opposition to the original, as the Rev. Mr. 
Grier and Dr. Ryan themselves quote it, yet these writers have the confi- 
dence to deny they are corruptions, because they pretend to prove, from 
other texts, that lh". cup is necessary, and that continency is not necessary!. 
Answer to Ward's Errata, p. 13. page 33. * * 

IT In the Prolegomena to his Poli_;lott, cap. v. 



Letter IX. 



75 



God does not consist in mere letters, whether written or printed 
but in the true sense of it ;* which no one can better interpret 
than the true church, to which Christ committed this sacred 
pledge." This is exactly what St. Jerom and St. Augustin had 
said many ages before him. " Let us be persuaded," says the 
former, " that *he Gospel consists not in the words, but in the 
sense. A wrong explanation turns the Word of God into the 
word of man, and what is worse, into the word of the devil ; for 
the devil himself could quote the text of Scripture."! Now that 
there are in Scripture things hard to be understood, which the un- 
learned and unstable wrest unto their own destruction, is expressly 
affirmed in it. J The same thing is proved by the frequent mistakes 
of the apostles themselves, with respect to the words of their 
divine Master. These obscurities are so numberless throughou* 
the sacred volumes, that the last quoted father, who was as bright 
and learned a divine as ever took the Bible in hand, says of it, 
" There are more things in Scripture that I am ignorant of than 
those I know."§ Should you prefer a modern Protestant author- 
ity to an ancient Catholic one, listen to the clear-headed Dr. 
Balguy. His words are these : " But what, you will reply, is 
all this to Christians ? to those who see, by a clear and strong 
light, the dispensation of God to mankind ? We are not as those 
who have no hope. The day-spring from on high hath visited us. 
The spirit of God shall lead us into all truth. — To this delusive 
dream of human folly, founded only on mistaken interpretations 
of Scripture ; I answer, in one word : Open your Bibles : take 
the first-page that occurs in either Testament, and tell me with- 

; out disguise ; is there nothing in it too hard for your understand- 
ing 1 If you find all before you clear and easy, you may thank 
God for giving you a privilege which he has denied to many 

i thousands of sincere believers."|| 

! Manifold is the cause of the obscurity of Holy Writ ; 1st, the 
Viblirhity of a considerable part of it, which speaks either liter- 
al;- or figuratively of the Deity and his attributes ; of the Word 
incarnate ; of angels, and other spiritual beings : — 2dly, the mys- 
terious nature of prophecy in general: — 3dly, the peculiar 
idioms of the Hebrew and Greek languages : — lastly, the numer- 
! ous and bold figures of speech, such as allegory, irony, hyper- 
l bole, catachresis, and antiphrasis, which are so frequent with 

* This obvious truth shows the extreme absurdity of our Bible societies 
and modern schools, whicn regard nothing but the mere reading of the 
'Bible, leaving persons to embrace the most opposite interpretations of the 
samt texts. t In. Ep ad Galat tontra Lucif. t 2 Pet iii. 16. 

§ St Aug. Ep. ad Januar. .11 Dr. Balguy's Discourses, p. 133. 



76 



Letter IX. 



the sacred penmen, particularly the ancient prophets.* I should 
like to hear any one of those, who pretend to find the Scripture 
so easy, attempting to give a clear explanation of the 67th, alias 
the 68th Psalm ; or the last chapter of Ecclesiastes. Is it any 
easy matter to reconcile certain well-known speeches of each 
of the holy patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the in- 
commutable precept of truth ? I may here notice, among a 
thousand other such difficulties, that when our Saviour sent 
his twelve apostles to preach the Gospel to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel, he told them, according to St. Matthew x. 10, 
Provide neither gold nor silver — neither shoes nor yet staves : 
whereas St. Mark vi. says, He commanded them that they should 
take nothing for their journey, save a staff only. You may in- 
deed answer, with Chillingworth and bishop Porteus, that what- 
ever obscurities there may be in certain parts of Scripture, it is 
clear in all that is necessary to be known. But on what author- 
ity do these writers ground this maxim ? They have none at all ; 
but they beg the question, as logicians express it, to extricate 
themselves from an absurdity, and in so doing they overturn 
their fundamental rule. They profess to gather their articles of 
faith and morals from mere Scripture : nevertheless, confessing 
that they understand only a part of it ; they presume to make a 
distinction in it, and to say this part is necessary to be known, the 
other part is not necessary. But to place this matter in a clearer 
light, it is obvious that if any articles are particularly necessary 
to be known and believed, they are those which pOint to the 
God whom we are to adore, and the moral precepts which we are 
to observe. Now, is it demonstratively evident, from mere Scrip- 
ture, that Christ is God, and to be adored as such ? Most mod- 
ern Protestants of eminence answer NO ; and, in defence of 
their assertion, quote the following among other texts : The 
Father is greater than I, John xiv. 28 ; to which the orthodox 
divines oppose those texts of the same evangelist, I and the Fath- 
er are one, x. 30. The Word ivas God, &c. i. 1. Again we find 
the following among the moral precepts of the Old Testament: 
* Go thy way ; eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a 
merry heart : for God now accepteth thy works. Let thy gar- 
ments be alwaye white, and let thy head lack no ointment. Live 
joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest, &c. Eccls. ix. 7, 8, 9. 
In the New Testament, we meet with the following seemingly 
practical commands. Swear not at all, Matt. v. 34. Call no 
man father upon earth — neither be you called masters, for one is 

* See examples of these, in Bonfrerius's Praeloqu ; ». and n the Appen- 
dixes to them, at the end of Menochius. 



Letter IX. 



77 



your master, Christ, Matt, xxiii, 9. 10. If 'any man sue thee at 
law, to take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also, v. 40. Give 
, to every man that asketh of thee : and of him that taketh away 
thy goods ask him not again, Luke vi. 30. When thou makest a 
dinner or a supper, call not thy friends nor thy brethren, xiv. 12. 
These are a few among hundreds of other difficulties, regarding 
our moral duties, which, though confronted by other texts, seem- 
ingly of a contrary meaning, nevertheless show that the Scrip- 
ture is not, of itself, demonstratively clear in points of first rate 
importance, and that the divine law, like human laws, without an 
authorized interpreter, must ever be a source of doubt and con- 
tention. 

V. 1 have said enough concerning the contentions among Pro- 
testants ; I will now, by way of concluding this letter, say a word 
or two of their doubts. In the first place, it is certain, as a learn- 
ed Catholic controvertist argues,* that a person who follows 
your rule cannot make an act of faith, this being, according to 
your great authority, bishop Pearson, an assent to the revealed 
articles, with a certain and full persuasion of their revealed 
truth ;f or, to use the words of your primate, Wake, " When 1 
give my assent to what God has revealed, 1 do it, not only with 
a certain assurance that what I believe is true, but with an ab- 
solute security that it cannot be false P% Now the Protestant, 
who has nothing to trust to but his own talents, in interpreting 
of the books of Scripture, especially with all the difficulties and 
uncertainties which he labours under, according to what I have 
shown above, never can rise to this certain assurance and abso- 
lute security, as to what is revealed in Scripture : the utmost he 
can say is, Such and such appears to me, at the present moment, 
to be the sense of the texts before me : and, if he is candid, he 
will add, but perhaps, upon further consideration, and upon com- 
paring these with other texts, I may alter my opinion. How far 
short, dear sir, is such mere opinion from the certainty of faith ! 
1 may here refer you to your own experience. Are you accus- 
tomed, in reading your Bible, to conclude, in your own mind, 
with respect to those points which appear to you most clear I 
believe in these, with a certain assurance of their truth, and an 
absolute security that they cannot be false ; especially when you 
reflect that other learned, intelligent, and sincere Christians have 
understood those passages in quite a different sense from what 
you do? For my part, having sometimes lived and conversed 

* • * Sheffinacher Lettres d*un Docteur Cat, a un Gentilhomme Prot. voi 
i. p. 48. 

t Oa the Creed, p. 15. t Princip. of Christ Rel. p. 27. 

7 * 



78 



Letter IX. 



familiarly with Protestants of this description, and noticed their 
controversial discourses, 1 never found one of them absolutely 
fixed, for any long time together, in his mind, as to the whole of 
his belief. 1 invite you to make the experiment on trie most 
intelligent and religious Protestant of your acquaintance. Ask 
him a considerable number of questions, on the most important 
points of his religion : note down his answers, while they are 
fresh in your memory. Ask him the same questions,' but in a 
different order, a month afterwards, when I can almost venture 
to say, you will be surprised at the difference you will find 
between his former and his latter creed. After all, we need not 
use any other means to discover the state of doubt and uncertainty 
ip which many of your greatest divines and most profound Scrip- 
twJ[ students have passed their days, than to look into their 
publications. I shall satisfy myself with citing the pastoral 
Charge of one of them, a living bishop, to his clergy. Speaking 
of the Christian doctrines, he says, " I think it safer to tell you 
where they are contained, than what they are. They are contained 
in the Bible ; and if, in reading that Book, your sentiments con- 
cerning the doctrines of Christianity should be different from 
those of your neighbour, or from those of the church, be persuaded, 
on your part, that infallibility appertains as little to you as it 
does to the church."* Can you read this, my dear sir, without 
shuddering 1 If a most learned and intelligent bishop and pro- 
fessor of divinity, as Dr. Watson certainly is, after studying all 
the Scriptures, and all the commentators upon them, is forced 
publicly to confess to his assembled clergy, that he cannot tell 
them what the doctrines of Christianity are, how unsettled must 
his mind have been ! and, of course, how far removed from the 
assurance of faith ! In the next place, how fallacious must that 
rule of thb mere Bible be, which, while he recommends it to them, 
he plainly signifies, will not lead them to a uniformity of senti- 
ments one with another, not even with their church ! 

There can be no doubt, sir, but those who entertain doubts 
concerning the truth of their religion, in the course of their lives, 
must experience the same, with redoubled anxiety, at the ap- 
proach of death. Accordingly there are, I believe, few of our 
Catholic priests, in an extensive ministry, who have not been 
frequently called in to receive dying Protestants into the Ca- 
tholic church,f while not a single instance of a Catholic wish- 

* Bishop Watson's Charge to his Clergy, in 1795. 

t A large proportion of those grandees who were the most forward in 
promoting the Reformation, so called, and, among, the rest, Cromwell, earl 
of Essex, the king's ecclesiastical vicar, when they came to die, returned 



Letter X. 79 

« 

ing to die in any other communion than his own can be produc- 
ed.* O death, thou great enlightener ! O truth-telling death, 
how powerful art thou in confuting the blasphemies, and dissi- 
pating the prejudices, of the enemies of God's church ! — Tak- 
ing it for granted, that you, dear sir, have not been without your 
doubts and fears about the safety of the road in which you are 
walking to eternity, more particularly in the course of the pre- 
sent controversy, and being anxious, beyond expression, that 
you should be free from these when you arrive at the brink of 
that vast ocean, 1 cannot do better than address you in the words 
of the great St. Augustine, to one in your situation : " If you 
think you have been sufficiently tossed about, and wish to see 
an end to your anxieties, follow the rule of Catholic discipline, 
which came down to us through the apostles from Christ him- 
self, and which shall descend from us to the latest posterity."f 
Yes, renounce the fatal and foolish presumption of fancying that 
you can interpret the Scripture better than the Catholic church, 
aided, as she is, by the tradition of all ages, and the spirit of all 
truth.% But I mean to treat this latter subject at due length in 
my next letter. I am, Dear Sir, &c. J. M. 



LETTER X. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
the true rule. 

Dear Sir, 

I HAVE received your letter, and also two others from gen- 
tlemen of your society, on what I have written to you concern- 
to the Catholic church. This was the case also with Luther's chief pro- 
tector, the elector of Saxony, the persecuting queen of Navarre, and many 
other foreign Protestant princes. Some bishops of the established church, 
for instance, Goodman and Cheyney, of Gloucester, and Gordon, of Glas- 
gow, probably also Halifax, of St. Asaph's, died Catholics. A long list of 
titled or otherwise distinguished personages, who have either returned to 
the Catholic faith, or for the first time, embraced it on their death-beds, in 
modern times, might be named here, if it were prudent to do so. 

* This is remarked by Sir Toby Matthews, son of the archbishop of York, 
Hugh Cressy, Canon of Windsor and dean of Laughlin, F. Walsingham, and 
Ant. Ulric, duke of Brunswick, all illustrious converts. Also by Beurier, 
in his Conferences, p. 400. 

t Du Util. Cred. c. 8. 

t Bossuet, in his celebrated Conference with Claude, which produced the 
conversion of Mile. Duras, obliged him to confess, that, by the Protestant 
rule, " every artisan and husbandman may and ought to believe that he can 
understand the scriptures better tlian all the fathers and doctors of the 
church, ancient and modern, put together " 



80 



Letter X. 



ing the insufficiency of Scripture, interpreted by individuals, 
to constitute a secure rule of faith. From these, it is plain that 
my arguments have produced a considerable sensation in the 
society ; insomuch that I find myself obliged to remind them of 
the terms on which we mutually entered upon this correspon- 
dence, namely, that each one should be at- perfect liberty to 
express his sentiments on the important subject under consider- 
ation, without complaint or offence of the other. The strength 
of my arguments is admitted by you all ■ yet you all bring in- 
vincible objection-s, as you consider them, from Scripture and 
other sources, against them. I think it will render our contro- 
versy more simple and clear, if, with your permission, I defer 
answering these, till after I have said all that I have to say con- 
cerning the Catholic rule of faith. . 

The Catholic rule of faith, as I stated before, is not merely the 
written W ord of God, but the whole Word of God, both written and 
unwritten ; in other words, Scripture and tradition, and these pro- 
pounded and explained by the Catholic church. This implies that 
we have a two-fold rule, or law, and that we have an interpreter, 
ox judge to explain it, and to decide upon it in all doubtful points. 

I. I enter upon this subject with observing that all written 
laws necessarily suppose the existence of unwritten laws, and 
indeed depend upon them for their force and authority. Not 
to run into the depths of ethics and metaphysics on this subject, 
you know, dear sir, that, in this kingdom, we have common or 
unwritten law, and statute or written law, both of them binding ; 
but that the former necessarily precedes the latter. The legis- 
lature, for example, makes a written statute ; but we must learn, 
before-hand, from the common law, what constitutes the legisla- 
ture, and we must also have learnt from the natural and the di- 
vine laws, that the legislature is to be obeyed in all things which, 
these do not render unlawful. " The municipal law of England," 
says judge Blackstone, " may be divided into Lex Non Scripts, 
the unwritten or common law, and the Lex Scripta, or Statute 
law."'* He afterwards calls the common law, "the first ground 
and chief corner-stone of the laws of England."! " If," conti 
nues he, "the question arises, how these customs or maxims art. 
to be known, and by whom their validity is to be determined ? Thu. 
answer is, by the judges in the several courts of justice. They 
are the depositaries of the laws, the living oracles, who must 
decide in all cases of doubt, and who are bound by oath to decide 
according to the law of the land. "J So absurd is the idea c 



# Comment on the Laws, Introduct. sect. 3. 

t Ibid. p. 73, Hth edit. t Ibid. p. 63. 



Letter X. 



81 



binding mankind by written laws, without laying an adequate 
foundation for the authority of those laws, and without consti- 
tuting living judges to decide upon them ! 

Neither has the divine wisdom, in founding the spiritual king- 
dom of his church, acted in that inconsistent manner. The 
Almighty did not send a Book, the New Testament, to Chris- 
tians, and, without so much as establishing the authority of that 
Book, leave them to interpret it, till the end of time, each one 
according to his own opinions or prejudices. But our blessed 
Master and legislator, Jesus Christ, having first demonstrated 
his own divine legation from his heavenly Father, by undenia- 
ble miracles, commissioned his chosen apostles, by word of mouth, 
to proclaim and explain, by word of mouth, his doctrines and 
precepts to all nations, promising to be with them, in the execu- 
tion of this office of his heralds and judges, even to the end of 
the world. This implies the power he had given them, of or- 
daining successors in this office, as they themselves were only 
to live the ordinary term of human life. True it is, that during 
the execution of their commission, he inspired some of them and 
their disciples to write certain parts of these doctrines and pre- 
cepts, namely, the canonical Gospels and Epistle's, which they 
addressed, for the most part, to particular persons, and on par- 
ticular occasions ; but these inspired writings by no means ren- 
dered void Christ's commission to the apostles and their succes- 
sors, of preaching and explaining his word to the nations, or his 
promise of being with them till the end of time. On the contrary, 
the inspiration of these very writings, is not otherwise known, 
than by the viva voce evidence of these depositaries and judges 
of the revealed truths. This analysis of revealed religion, so 
conformable to reason and the civil constitution of our country, 
is proved to be true, by the written Word itself— by the tradition 
and conduct of the apostles — and by the constant testimony and 
practice of the fathers and doctors of the church, in all ages. 

II. Nothing then, dear sir, is further from the doctrine and 
practice of the Catholic church than to slight the Holy Scrip- 
tures. So far from this, she had religiously preserved and per- 
petuated them, from age to age, during almost fifteen hundred 
years, before Protestants existed. She has consulted them, and 
confirmed her decrees from them, in her several councils. She 
enjoins her pastors, whose business it is to instruct the faithful, 
to read and study them without intermission,, knowing, that all 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is prof, table for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteous- 
ness. 2 Tim iii. 16. Finally, she proves her perpetual right to 



Letter A 



announce and explain the truths and precepts of her divine 

Founder, by several of the strongest and clearest passages con- 
tained in Holy Writ.* Such, for example, is the last commission 
of Christ, alluded to above : Go ye therefore and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded you. And lo ! I am with you all days, even 
to the end of the world. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. And Again, Go ye 
into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 
xvi. 15. It is preaching and teaching then, that is to say the 
unwritten Word, which Christ has appointed to be the general 
method of propagating his divine truths ; and, whereas he pro- 
mises to be with his apostles to the end of the world : this proves 
their authority in expounding, and that the same was to descend 
to their legitimate successors in the sacred ministry, since they 
themselves were only to live the ordinary term of human life. 
In like manner, the following clear texts prove the authority of 
the apostles and their successors forever ; that is to say, of the 
ever-living and speaking tribunal of the church, in expounding our 
Saviour's doctrine : / will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever. — The 
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send 
in my name ; he shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. John 
xiv. 16, 26. St. Paul, speaking of both the uu written and the 
written Word, puts them upon a level, where he says, There- 
fore, brethren, stand fast and hold the tradition ye have been taught^ 
whether by word or our Epistle. 2. Thess. v. 13. Finally, St. 
Peter pronounces, that, No prophecy of Scripture is of any private 
interpretation. 2 Pet. i. 20. 

III. That the apostles, and the apostolical men, whom they 
formed, followed this method prescribed by their Master, is 
unquestionable ; and we have positive proofs from Scripture, 
as well as from ecclesiastical history, that they did so. St. 
Mark, after recording the above cited admonition of preaching 
the Gospel, which Christ left to his apostles, adds, And they 
went forth and preached every where ; the Lord working with 
them, and confirming the word with signs following. Mark xvi. 
20. St. Peter preached throughout Judea, and Syria, and last 
of all in Italy and at Rome ; St. Paul, throughout Lesser Asia, 
Greece, and as far as Spain ; St. Andrew penetrated into Scy- 

* St. Austin uses this argument against the Donatists, In " Scripturis dis- 
cimus Christum in Scripturis discimus, Ecclesiam Si Christum teneatU, 
quare Ecclesiam non tenetis." 



Letter X. 



83 



thia ; St Thoma3 and St. Bartholomew into Parthia and India, 

and so of the others ; every where converting and instructing 
thousands, by word of mouth ; founding churches, and ordaining 
bishops and priests to do the same.* If any of them wrote, it 
was on some particular occasion, and, for the most part, to a 
particular person or congregation, without either g. ring direc- 
tions, or providing means of communicating their Epistles or 
their Gospels to the rest of the Christians throughout the world. 
Hence, it happened, as I have before remarked, that it was not 
till the end of the fourth century, that the canon of Holy Scrip- 
tures was absolutely settled as it now stands. True it is, that 
the apostles, before they separated to preach the Gospel to dif- 
ferent nations, agreed upon a short symbol or profession of faith, 
• called The Apostles' Creed ; but even this they did not commit 
to writing :f and whereas they made this, among other articles 
of it, / believe in the Holy Church,\ they made no mention at all 
of the Holy Scriptures. This circumstance confirms what their 
example proves, that the Christian doctrine and discipline might 
have been propagated and preserved by the unwritten Word, or 
tradition, joined with the authority of the church, though the 
Scriptures had not been composed ; however profitable these 
most certainly sue for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for 
instruction in righteousness. 2 Tim-, iii. 16. I have already quo- 
ted one o the ornaments of your church, who says, that " the 
canonical Epistles" (and he might have added the Gospels) " are 
not regular treatises upon the Christian religion and 1 shall 
have occasion to show, from an ancient father, that this religion 
did prevail and flourish soon after the age of the apostles, among 
nations which did not even know the use of letters. 

IV. However light Protestants of this age may make of the 
ancient fathers, as theological authorities,^ they cannot object to 

* They ordained them priests in every church. Acts xiv. 22. For this cause 
I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldsi set in order the things that are want- 
ing, and shouldsi ordain priests in e-very city, as I had appointed thee. Tit. 

1. 5. The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the 
same commit thou, to those jaithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. 

2. Tim. ii. 2. t Ruffin inter Opera Hieron. 

t The title Catholic was afterwards added, when heresies increased. 
§ Elements of Theology, vol. ii. 

II Jewel, Andrews, Hooker, Morton, Pearson, and other Protestant di- 
vines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries laboured hard to press the 
fathers into their service ; but with such bad success, that the succeeding 
controversialists gave them up in despair. The learned Protestant, Causa- 
bon, confessed that the fathers were all on the Catholic side; the equally 
learned >recht testifies that, in reading their works, " he was frequently 
provoked lo throw them on the ground," finding them so full of Popery 
while Middleton heaps every kind of obloquy upon them 



84 



Letter X. 



them as faithful witnesses of the rioctriae and discipline of the 
church in their respective times. It is chiefly in the lattei 
character that I am going to bring a certain number of them 
forward, namely, to prove that during the five first ages of the 
church, no less than in the subsequent ages, the unwritten Word, 
or tradition, was held in equal estimation by her with the Scrip- 
ture itself, and that she claimed a divine right of propounding 
and explaining them both 

I begin with the disciple of the apostles, St. Ignatius, bishop 
of Antioch : it is recorded of him that, in his passage to Rome, 
where he was sentenced to be devoured by wild beasts, he ex- 
horted the Christians, who got access to him, " to guard them- 
selves against the rising heresies, and to adhere with the utmost 
firmness to the tradition of the apostles."* The same sentiments • 
appear in this saint's Epistles, and also in those of his fellow 
martyr, St. Polycarp, the angel of the church of Smyrna.^ 

One of the disciples of the last mentioned holy bishop was 
St. Irenaeus, who, passing into Gaul, became bishop of Lyons. 
He has left twelve books against the heresies of his time, which 
abound with testimonies to the present purpose ; some few of 
which I shall here insert. — He writes, " Nothing is easier to 
those who seek for the truth, than to remark, in every church, 
the tradition, which the apostles have manifested to all the world. 
We can name the bishops appointed by the apostles in the sev- 
eral churches, and the successors of those bishops down to our 
own time, none of whom ever taught or heard of such doctrines 
as these heretics dream of."! This holy father emphatically 
affirms that, " In explaining the Scriptures, Christians are to at- 
tend to the pastors of the church, who, by the ordinance of God, 
have received the inheritance of truth, with the succession of their 
Sees."§ He adds, " The tongues of nations vary, but the virtue 
of tradition is one and the same everywhere ; nor do the churches 
in Germany believe or teach differently from those in Spain, 
Gaul, the East, Egypt, or Lybia."II — " Since it would be tedious 
to enumerate the succession of all the churches, we appeal to 
the faith and tradition of the greatest, most ancient, and best 
known church, that of Rome, founded ty the apostles, SS. 
Peter and Paul ; for with this church all others agree, in as 
much as in her is preserved the tradition which comes down 
from the apostles."!— " SUPPOSING THE APOSTLES HAD 
NOT LEFT US THE SCRIPTURES, OUGHT NOT WE 
STILL TO HAVE FOLLOWED THE ORDINANCE OF 



* Euseb. Hist. 1. iii. c. 30 t Revel, ii. 8. t ' dvers. Haeres. I iii. c 5. 
§ L. iv. c. 43. |i L. i. c. 3. IF L- iii c. 3. 



Letter X. 



TRADITION, which they consigned to those to whom they 
committed the churches 1 It is this ordinance of tradition which 
many nations of barbarians, believing in Christ, follow, without 
the use of letters or ink."* 

Tertullian, who flourished two hundred years after the Chris- 
tian era, among his other works, has left us one of the same na- 
ture, and almost the same title with that last cited. In this, 
speaking of the contemporary heretics, he says, " They meddle 
-with the Scriptures, and adduce arguments from them : for, in 
treating of faith, they pretend that they ought not to argue upon 
any other ground than the written documents of faith : thus they 
weary the firm, catch the weak, and fill the middle sort with 
doubt. We begin, therefore, with laying down as a maxim, that 
these men ought not to be allowed to argue at all from scripture. 
In fact, these disputes about the sense of Scripture have gener- 
ally no other effect than to disorder either the stomach or the 
brain. It is, therefore, the wrong method to appeal to the Scrip- 
tures, since these afford either no decision, or, at most, only a 
doubtful one. And even if this were not the case, still, in ap- 
pealing to Scripture, the natural order of things requires that we 
should first inquire to whom the Scriptures belong ? From whom, 
and by whom, and on what occasion, and to whom, that tradi- 
tion was delivered by which we became Christians ? For where 
the truth of Christian discipline and faith is found, there is the 
truth of Scripture, and of the interpretation of it, and of all Chris- 
tian traditions."! He elsewhere says, "that doctrine is evident- 
ly true which was first delivered : on the contrary, that is false 
which is of a later date. This maxim stands immoveable against 
the attempts of all late heresies. Let such then produce the 
origin of their churches : let them show the succession of their 
bishops from the apostles, or their disciples. — If you live near 
Italy, you see before your eyes the Roman church : happy 
church! to which the apostles have left the inheritance of their 
doctrine with their blood ! Where Peter was crucified, like his 
Master ; where Paul was beheaded, like the Baptist ! — If this 
be so, it is plain, as we have said, that heretics are not to be 
allowed to appeal to Scripture, since they have no claim to it. — 
Hence it is proper to address them as follows : — Who are you ? 
Whence do you come ? What business have you strangers with 
my properly ? By what right are you, Marcion, felling my trees? By 
what authority are you, Valentine, turning the course of my streams ? 
Under what pretence are you, Apelles, removing my land-marks? 
The estate is mine : I have the ancient, the prior possession oj it 

* J*, iv. c. 64 t Praescrip. Advers. Haeres. edit. Rh^nan, pp. 30,437 



96 



Letter X. 



I have the title deeds delivered to me by the original proprietor* 

I am the heir of the apostles ; they have made their will in my fa 
vour ; while they disinherited and cast you off, as strangers ana 
enemies"* In another of his works,f this eloquent father proves, 
at great length, the absolute necessity of admitting tradition, no 
iess than Scripture as the rule of faith, inasmuch as many im- 
poirant points which he mentions, cannot be proved without it. 

1 pass Oy other shining lights of the third century, such as St. 
Element of Alexandria, St. Cyprian, Origen, &c. all of whom 
olace apostolical tradition on a level with Scripture, and de- 
scribe the cnurch as the expounder of them both : 1 must, how- 
ever, give me following words, from the last named great Bibli- 
cal scholar. He says, " We are not to credit those, who, by 
rating real canonical Scripture, seem to say, behold the Word is 
m your houses : for we are not to desert our first ecclesiastical 
tradition, noi to believe otherwise than as the churches of God 
have, in their perpetual succession, delivered to us." 

Among the numerous and illustrious witnesses of the fouith 
age, 1 shall be content with citing St. Basil and St. Epiphanius. 
The former says, " There are many doctrines preserved and 
preached in the church', derived partly from written documents 
partly from apostolical tradition, which have equally the sam* 
force in religion, and which no one contradicts who has the least 
knowledge of the Christian laws. "J The latter of these fathers, 
says, with equal brevity and force, " We must make use of tra- 
dition : for all things are not to be found in Scripture. 

St. John Chrysostom flourished at the beginning of the fifth 
century, who, though he strongly recommends the reading of 
the holy Scriptures, yet, expounding the text, 2 Thess. ii. 14. 
says, " Hence it is plain that the apostles did not deliver to us 
every thing by their Epistles, but many things without writing. 
These are equally worthy of belief. Hence, let us regard the 
tradition of the church, as the subject of our belief. Such and 
such a thing is a tradition: seek no farther."— \\, would fill a 
large volume to transcribe all the passages which occur in the 
works of the great St. Austin, in proof of the Catholic rule, and 1 
the authority of the church in making use of it : let therefore two j 
or three of them speak for the rest. — " To attain to the truth oj 1 
the Scriptures" he says, " we must follow the sense of them en- 1 
tertained by the universal church, to which the Scriptures them- 1 
selves bear testimony. True it is the Scriptures themselves can- j| 
not deceive us ; nevertheless, to prevent our being deceived in the if 

* Pracscrip. Advers litres, edit. Rhenan, pp 3(5,37 t De Corona Mi lit. J 
t In Lib. de Spir. Sane „ ' § De cigeres N. 61. 



Letter X. 87 

question we examine by them, it is necessary we should advise 
with that chut jh, which these certainly and evidently point out 
to us."*—" This (the unlawfulness of rebaptizing heretics) is not 
evidently read either by you or by me ; nevertheless, if there 
were any wise man, to whom Christ had borne testimony, and 
whom he had appointed to be consulted on the question, we 
could not fail to do so : now Christ bears testimony to his church. 
Whoever, therefore, refuses to follow the practice of the church 
resists Christ himself, who by his testimony recommends this 
church."t Treating elsewhere, on the same subject, he says, 
" The apostles, indeed, have prescribed nothing about this ; but 
the custom must be considered as derived from their tradition, 
since there are many things, observed by the universal . church, 
which are justly held to have been appointed by the apostles, 
though they are not written.''^ It seems doing an injury to St. 
Vincent of Lerins, who lived at the end of the fifth century, to 
quote a part of his celebrated Commonitorium, when the whole 
of it is so admirably calculated to refute the false rule of here- 
tics, condemned in the foregoing testimonies, and to prove the 
Catholic rule, here laid down : still I can only transcribe a very 
small portion of it. " It is asked," says this father, " as the Scrip- 
ture is perfect, what need is there of the authority of church doc- 
trine ? The reason is because the Scripture, being so profound- 
ly deep, is not understood by all persons in the same sense, but 
different persons explain it different ways, so that there are 
almost as many meanings as there are readers of it. Novation 
interprets it in one sense, Photinas in another, Arius, &c. in 
another. Therefore it is requisite that the true road of expound- 
ing the prophets and apostles must be marked out, according to 
the ecclesiastical Catholic line. 

" It never was, is, or will be lawful for Catholic Christians to 
teach any doctrine, except that which they once received ; and 
it ever was, is, and will be their duty to condemn those who do 
so. — Do the heretics then appeal to the Scriptures ? Certainly 
they do, and this with the utmost confidence. You will see them 
running hastily through the different books of Holy Writ, those 
of Moses, Kings, the Psalms, the Gospels, &c. At home and 
abroad, in their discourses and in their writings, they hardly 
produce a sentence which is not larded with the words of Scrip- 
ture, &c. ; but they are so much the more to be dreaded, as they 
conceal themselves under the veil of the divine laws Let us, 
however, remember, that Satan transformed himself into uq 



* L. i. oontKi Crescon. 

t L)e Rapt, contra Donat 1. v. 



t De Util. Credend. 



88 



Letter XL 



angel of light. — If lie could turn the Scriptures against the 
Lord of Majesty, what use may he not make of them against us 
poor mortals ? — If then Satan and his disciples, the heretics, are 
capable of thus perverting holy Scripture, how are Catholics the 
children of the church, to make use of them, so as to discern 
truth from falsehood ? They must carefully observe the rule laid 
down at the beginning of this treatise by the holy and learned 
men I referred to: THEY ARE TO INTERPRET THE 
DIVINE TEXT, ACCORDING TO THE TRADITION 
OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH."* 

It would be as easy to prove this rule of faith from the fathers 
of the sixth as the former centuries, particulary from St. Gregory 
the great, that holy Pope, who at the close of this century, sent 
missionaries from Rome to convert our Pagan ancestors : but, I 
am sure, you will think that evidence enough has been brought 
to show that the ancient fathers of the church, from the very 
time of the apostles, held this whole rule of faith, namely, the 
word of God unwritten as well as written, together with the living, 
speaking tribunal of the church to preserve and interpret both of 
them. I am, &c. J. M 

LETTER XL 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. #c, 
the true rule. 

Dear Sir, 

THE all-importance of determining with ourselves which is 
the right rule or method of discovering religious truth must be 
admitted by all thinking Christians ; as it is evident that this 
rule alone can conduct them to it, and that a false rule is capa- 
ole of conducting them into all sorts of errors. It is equally 
clear why all those who are bent upon deserting the Catholic 
church, reject her rule, that of the whole word of God ; together 
with her living authority in explaining it : for, while this rule 
and this authority are acknowledged, there can be no heresy or 
schism among Christians, as whatever points of religion are not 
clear from Scripture are supplied and illustrated by tradition ; 
and as the pastors of the church, who possess that authority, are 
always living and ready to declare what is the sense of Scripture, 
and what the tradition on each contested point which they have 
received in succession from the apostles. The only resource, 

* Vincent Lerins Commonit. Advers. Hoer- edit. Balua. An English 
translation of this little work ha* lately been published. 



Letjer XI. 



89 



therefore, of persons resolved to follow their own or their fore- 
fathers' particular opinions or practices, in matters of religion, 
with the exception of the enthusiast, has been in all times, both 
ancient and modern, to appeal to mere Scripture, which being a 
dead letter, leaves them at liberty to explain it as they will. 

h And yet, with all their repugnance to tradition and church 
authority, Protestants have found themselves absolutely obliged, 
in many instances, to admit of them both. — It has been demon- 
strated above, that they are obliged to admit of tradition, in or- 
der to admit of Scripture itself. Without this, they can neither 
know that there are any writings at all dictated by God's inspi- 
ration ; nor which these writings are in particular ;* nor what 
versions, or publication of them are genuine. But, as this mat- 
ter has been sufficiently elucidated, I proceed to other points of 
religion, which Protestants receive, either without the authority 
of Scripture, or in opposition to the letter of it. 

The first precept in the Bible, is that of sanctifying the seventn 
day : God blessed the SEVENTH DAY, and sanctified it. Gen. 
ii. 3. This precept was confirmed by God, in the Ten Com- 
mandments : Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The 
SEVENTH DAY is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. Exod. xx. 
On the other hand, Christ declares that he is not come to destroy 
the law but to fulfil it. Mat. v. 17. He himself observed the 
Sabbath : and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on 
the Sabbath day : Luke iv. 16. His disciples likewise observed 
it, after his death : They rested on the Sabbath day according tc 
the commandment. . Luke xxiii. 56. Yet, with all this weigh; 
of Scripture authority for keeping the Sabbath or seventh day 
holy, Protestants, of all denominations, make this a profane day 
and transfer the obligation of it to the first day of the week, or 
the Sunday. Now what authority have they for doing this ? 
None at all, but the unwritten Word, or tradition of the Catholic 
church, which declares that the apostles made the change in 
honour of Christ's resurrection, and the descent of the Holy 
Ghost, on that day of the week. Then, with respect to the 
manner of keeping that day holy, their universal doctrine and 
practice are no less at variance with the Sacred Text. The 
Almighty says, " From even unto even shall you celebrate your 
Sabbath, u Levit. xxiii. 32, which is the practice of the Jews 

* Amongst all the learned Protestants of this age, Dr. Porteus is the only 
one who pretends to discern Scripture, " partly on account of its own rea- 
sonableness, and the characters of divine wisdom in it J ' Brief Confut. p. 
9. I could have wished to ask his lordship, whether it is by these charac- 
ters that he has discovered the Canticle or Song of Solomon to be inspired 
Scripture? 



90 



Letter XL 



dowEi to che present time ; but not of any Protestants that eve? 
I huard of. Again, it is declared in Scripture to be unlawful to 
dress victuals on that day, Exod. xvi. 23, or even to make a. fire, 
Exod. xxxv. 3. Again, where is there a precept in the whole 
Scripture more express than that against eating blood? God 
said to Noah, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat to you 
— but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall 
you not eat, Gen. ix. 4. This prohibition we know was con 
firmed by Moses, Levit. xvii. 11, Deut. xii. 23, and by the apos- 
tles, and was imposed upon the Gentiles, who were converted 
to the faith, Acts. xv. 20. Nevertheless, where is the religious 
Protestant who scruples to eat gravy with his meat, or puddings 
made of blood ? At the same time if he be asked, Upon what 
authority do you act in contradiction to the express words of 
both the Old and the New Testament ? he can find no other 
answer than that he has learned from the tradition of the church, 
that the prohibition was only temporary. — I will confine myself 
to one more instance of Protestants abandoning their own rule, 
that of Scripture alone, to follow ours, of Scripture explained by 
tradition. If any intelligent Pagan, who had carefully perused 
the New Testament, were asked, which of the ordinances men- 
tioned in it, is most explicitly and strictly enjoined ? I make no 
doubt but he would answer that it is, The washing of feet. To 
convince yourself of this, be pleased to read the first seventeen 
verses of St. John, c. xiii. Observe the motive assigned for 
Christ's performing the ceremony, there recorded ; namely, his 
1 love for his disciples :" next the time of his performing it ; 
namely, when he-, was about to depart out of this world : then 
the stress he lays upon it, in what he said to Peter, If I wash 
thee not thou hast no part, with me : finally, his injunction, at the 
conclusion of it, If 1 your Lord and Master, have washed your 
feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feel. 1 now ask, on 
what pretence can those who profess to make Scripture alone the 
rule of their religion, totally disregard this institution and precept I 
Had this ceremony been observed in the chureh when Luther 
and the other first Protestants began to dogmatize, there is no 
doubt but they would have retained it : but, having learnt from 
her that it was only figurative, they acquiesced in this decision, 
contrary to what appears to be the plain sense of Scripture. 

II. But I asserted that Protestants find themselves obliged 
not only to adopt the rule of our church, on many the most im- 
portant subjects, but also to claim her authority. It is true, as 
a late dignitary of the establishment observes,* that, " When 

* Archdeacon Blackburn in his celebrated Confessional, p. I. 



Letter XL 



91 



i rotestants first withdrew from the communion of the church of 
Rome, the principles they went upon were such as these : Ghrist, 
by his gospel, hath called all men to the liberty, the glorious 
liberty, of the sons of God, and restord them to the privilege of 
working out their own salvation by their own understanding and 
endeavours. For this work, sufficient means are afforded in the 
Scriptures, without having recourse to the doctrines and com- 
mandments of men. Consequently, faith and conscience, having 
no dependence on man's laws, are not to be compelled by 
man's authority." — What now was the consequence of this fun- 
damental rule of Protestantism? Why, that endless variety 
of doctrines, errors, and impieties, mentioned above, followed by 
those tumults, wars, rebellions, and anarchy, with which the 
history of every country is filled, which embraced the new reli- 
gion. It is readily supposed that the princes, and other rulers 
ol those countries, ecclesiactical as well as civil, however hostil 
they might be to the ancient church, would wish to restrain these 
disorders, and make their subjects adopt the same sentiments 
with themselves. Hence, in every Protestant state, articles of 
religion, and confessions of faith, differing from one another, yet 
each one agreeing with the opinion, for the time being, of those 
princes and rulers, were enacted by law, and enforced by excom- 
munication, deprivation, exile, imprisonment, tOTture, and death. 
These latter punishments indeed, however frequently they were 
exercised by Protestants against Protestants, as well as against 
Catholics, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,* have 
not been resorted to during the last hundred years ; but the terri- 
ble sentence of excommunication, which includes* outlawry, even 
now hangs over the head of every Protestant bishop, as well as 
other clergyman, in this country,! who interpret those passages 
of the Gospel, concerning Jesus Christ, in the sense which it ap- 
pears from their writings a number of them entertain ; and none 
of them can take possession of a living, without subscribing the 
Thirty-nine Articles, and publicly declaring his unfeigned assent 
and consent to them, and to every thing contained in the Book of 
Common Prayer.% Thus, by adopting a false rule of religion, 
thinking Protestants are reduced to the cruel extremity of palpable 
contradiction ! They cannot give up " the glorious liberty." as 

* See the letter on the Reformation and on Persecution, in Letters to a 
Prebendary. See also Neal's History of the Puritans Delaune's Narrative, 
Sewel's History of the Quakers, &c. 

t See many excommunicating canons, and particularly one, A. D. 1640, 
.against " the damnable and cursed heresy of Socinianism," as it is termed, 
I in Bishop Sparrow's Collection. 

f 1st Eliz. cap. 2.— 14 Cai. ii. c 4- Item Canon 36 et 38. 



92 



Letter XL 



it is called above, of explaining the Bible, each one for himself 
without, at once, giving up their cause to the Catholics* j and 
they cannot adhere to it without, many of the above mentioned 
fatal consequences, and without the speedy dissolution of theii 
respective churches. Impatient of the constraint in being obliged 
to sign anicles of fakh which they do not believe, many able 
clergymen of the establishment have written strongly against 
them, and have even petitioned parliament to be relieved from 
the alleged grievance of subscribing the professed doctrine of 
their own church.* On the other hand, the legislature, foreseeing 
the consequences which would result from the removal of the 
obligation, have always rejected their* prayer: and the judgts 
have even refused to admit the following salvo in addition to thi 
subscription : " I assent and consent to the Articles and the 
Book, as far as they are agreeable to the word of God."j In 
these straits, many of the most able as well as the most respec- 
table of the established clergy, have been reduced to such so- 
phistry and casuistry, as to move the pity of their very opponents. 
One of these, the Norrisian professor of divinity at Cambridge,! 
as one way of excusing his brethren for subscribing articles 
which they do not believe in, cites the example of the divines 
of Geneva, where, he says, " a complete tacit reformation seems 
to have taken place. The Genevese have now, in fact, quitted 
their Calvinistic doctrines, though, inform, they retain them. — 
When the minister is admitted, he takes an oath of assent to 
the Scriptures, and professes to teach them according to the 
Catechism of Calvin ; but this last clause about Calvin, he makes i 
a separate business, speaking lower, or altering his posture, of 
speaking after a considerable interval. Such a change of 
posture, or tone of voice, in the swearer, our learned professor 
considers as sufficient to excuse him from the guilt of prevari- 
cation, in swearing contrary to the plain meaning of his oath ! 
It is not, however, intimated that the professor himself has re- 
course to this expedient : his particular system is, that " the 
church of England, like that of Geneva, has, of late, undergone I 
a complete tacit reformation,^ and hence that the sense of its 
articles of faith is to be determined by circumstances.^ Thus 
he adds (referring, I presume, to the statutes of King's college, 

* There was such a petition, signed by a great number of clergymen 
and supported by many others, in 1772. + See Confess/oua], p. 183 

t Lectures in Divinity, delivered in the university of Cambridge, by J 
Hey, D. D. as Norrisian professor, 1797, vol. li. p 57- § Ibid. 

II Ibid. p. 48, (particularly in its approach to Socinianism, from whif I 
he signifies it is divided only by a few " unmeaning words."} 

? Lectures in Divinity, &c. p. 49. 



Letter XL 



93 



Cambridge) the oath, " I will say so many masses for the s >ul 
of Henry VI., may come to mean, I will perform the religious 
duties required of me ! !"* The celebrated moralist, Dr. Patey, 
justifies a departure from the original sense of the articles of 
religion subscribed, by an INCONVENIENCE, which is mani- 
fest beyond all doubt 1 /f Archdeacon Powell, master of St. 
John's college, defends the English clergy from the charge ol 
subscribing what they do not believe, because, he says, " The 
crime is impossible : as that cannot be the sense of the declara- 
tion which no one imagines to be its sense ; nor can that inter- 
pretation be erroneous which all have received \\ And yet such 
prelates as Seeker, Horseley, Cleaver, Pretyman, with all the 
judges, strongly maintain that the literal meaning of the Articles 
must be strictly adhered to ! 

I could cite many other dignitaries, or other leading clergy- 
men, of the establishment, and nearly the whole host of dis- 
senters, who have recourse to such quibbles and evasions, in 
order to get rid of the plain sense of the articles and creeds, to 
which they have solemnly engaged themselves before the Crea- 
tor, as, I am convinced they would not make use of in any con • 
tract with a fellow creature ; but I hasten to take in hand the 
admired Discourses of my friend, Dr. Balguy. He was the 
champion, the very Achilles, of those who defended the sub- 
scription of the Thirty-nine Articles, against the petitioners for 
the abrogation of it, in 1772. And how think you, dear sir, did 
he defend it 1 Not by vindicating the truth of the articles them- 
selves, much less by any of the quibbles mentioned or alluded 
to above ; but upon the principle, that an exterior show of uni- 
formity in the ministers of religion is necessary for the support 
of it ; and that, therefore, they ought to subscribe and teach the 
doctrine prescribed to them by the law, whatever they may in- 
wardly think of it. Thus it was that he and many of his friends 
imagined it possible to unite religious liberty with ecclesiastical 
restrictions. But I will give you the archdeacon's own words, 
in one of his charges to his clergy. " The articles, we will 
say, are not exactly what we might wish them to be. Some of 
them are expressed in doubtful terms; others are inaccurate, 
perhaps, unphilosophical : others again may chance to mislead 
an ignorant reader into some erroneous opinions but is there 

* Lectures in Divinity, &c. p. 62. 

t Moral anl Polit. Philos. Not having this work, or Dr. Powell's Ser. 
mon at hand, I here quote from Overton's True Churchman, p. 337. 
t Semi, on Subscrib. 

i Which articles they are that the doctor particularly objects to, we caa 



94 



Letter XL 



any one among them that leads to immorality ? Is there one in 
the number that will make us revengeful or cruel ?" &c* On 
this principle, you might, in the Eastern world, conscientiously 
swear your assent and consent to the fables of the Koran or the 
Vedam ! ! But, to proceed : he says, " Nothing is clearer than 
that the uniform appearance of religion is the cause of its general 
and easy reception. • Destroy this uniformity, and you cannot 
but introduce doubt and perplexity into the minds of the people."! 
Again, he says, " I am far from wishing to discourage the clergy 
of the established church from thinking for themselves, or from 
speaking what they think, nor even from writing. I say nothing 
against the right of private judgment or speech, I only contend 
that men ought not to attack the church from those very pulpits, 
in which they were placed for her defence. "J What is this 
doctrine of the subscription champion, dear sir, I appeal to you, 
but a defence of the most vile and sacrilegious hypocrisy that 
can possibly be imagined ? He leaves the clergy at liberty to 
disbelieve in, to talk, and even to write, against the doctrine of their 
church ; but requires them in the pulpit to defend it ! I agree 
with him that contradictory doctrines publicly maintained by 
ministers of the same religion, is the way to make the adherents 
of it renounce it entirely : but will not that effect more certainly 
follow from the people's discovering, as they must in the case 
supposed discover, that their clergy do not themselves believe in 
the doctrines which they preach ! 

But this system of deceiving the people is not peculiar to Dr. 
Balguy : it is avowed by his friend and master, bishop Hoadley. 
and represented by archdeacon Blackburn, from whom I take 
the following passage, as being very generally adopted. § — " In 
all proposals and schemes to be reduced to practice," the bishop 
says, " we must suppose the world to be what it is, and what it 
ought to be. We must propose, not merely what is absolutely 
g<x)d in itself, but what is so with respect to the prejudices, 
tempers, and constitutions, we know and are sure to be among 
us. It is represented that the world was never less disposed to 
be serious and reasonable than at this period. Religious reflec- 
tion, we are informed, is not the humour of the times. We are 

easily gather, from his general language concerning mysteries, the sacra- 
ments, and our redemption by Christ On this last head, he seriously cau- 
tions us against " censuring or persecuting our brethren because their nonr 
Xnse and our's wears a different dress." Charge ii. p. 192. 

* Charge vi. p. 293. t Charge v p. 257. 

X Dist vii. p. 120. Discourses by Thomas Balguy D. D archdeacon and 
»rebendary of Winchester, &c dedicated to the king. Lockyer Davies, 1786. 

§ Confessional, p. 375, p. 385 



Letter XL 



95 



therefore advised to keep our prudence and our patience a little 
longer ; to wait till our people are in a better temper, and in the 
mean time, to bear with their manners and dispositions ; gently 
and gradually correcting their foolish notions and habits ; but still 
taking care not to throw in more light upon them, at once, than the 
weak optics of men, so long used to sit in darkness, are able to 
bear" His lordship's words are guarded, but perfectly intelli- 
gible. Bishop Hoadl^y had undermined the church he professed 
to support, in her doctrine and discipline, as has been elsewhere 
demonstrated,* and he wished all the clergy to co-operate in 
diffusing his Socinian system ; but he advised them to attempt 
this gently and gradually, bearing with the people's foolish no- 
tions, and not throwing too much light upon them at once : in other 
words, continuing to subscribe the Articles and to preach* them 
from the pulpit, being inwardly persuaded at the same time, 
that they are not only false, but also foolish ! — Thus, dear sir, 
you have seen the necessity to which the different Protestant 
societies have found themselves reduced, of occasionally ap- 
pealing to tradition, and of assuming authority to dictate con- 
fessions and articles of religion in direct violation of their boasted 
charter of private judgment ; and you have seen that this incon- 
sistency has rendered the remedy worse than the disease. These 
weapons, not being natural to them, have been turned against 
them, and have mortally wounded them : and " the church of 
England in particular," as one of its principle defenders com- 
plains, " is like an oak, cleft to shivers with wedges made out 
of its own body."f You will now see with what ease and success 
the Catholic church wields these weapons ; but, first, I think it 
best to add something by way of confirming and elucidating this 
Catholic rule. 

III. What has been said above in proof, of the Catholic rule, 
namely, that Christ established it when he sent his apostles to 
preach the Gospel, and that the apostles followed it, when they 
established churches throughout different nations, is so incon- 
testible as not to be denied by any of our learned opponents : 
still less will they deny, that the ancient fathers and the doctors 
of the church, in every age, maintained this rule. Accordingly, 
one of the latest and most learned Protestant controvertists writes 
thus, " No one will deny that Jesus Christ laid the foundation of 
his church by preaching : nor can we deny that the unwritten 
Word was the first rule of Christianity. "J This being granted 

* Letter, to a Prebendary, Art. Hoadleyism. 
t Daubeny's Guide to the Church, Append. 

t Comparative View of the Churches, p. til, by Dr. (now bishop) Marsh, 



96 



Letter XI. 



it was incumbent on his lordship to demonstrate, and thia by no 

less an authority than that which established the rule, at what 
precise period it was abrogated. Was it when this Gospel or 
that Gospel, when this Epistle or that Epistle, was written, 
though known only to particular congregations or persons, that 
the pastors of the church lost their authority of proclaiming, So 
we have received from the apostles, or the disciples of the apostles : 
so all the other pastors of the Catholic church believe and teach ? 
Or was this abrogation of the first rule of Christianity deferred 
till the canon of Scripture was fixed, at the end of the fourth cen- 
tury ? So far from there being divine authority, there is not 
even a hint in ecclesiastical history on which to ground this pre- 
tended alteration in the rule of faith. His Lordship's only foun- 
dation is his own conjecture : " It is extremely improbable," he 
says, " that an all-wise Providence, in imparting a new revela- 
tion to mankind, would suffer any doctrine or article of faith to 
be transmitted to posterity by so precarious a vehicle as that of 
oral tradition."* The bishop of Londonf had before said nearly 
the same thing, as well with respect to tradition being the ori- 
ginal rule as to the improbability of its continuing to be so, " con- 
sidering," as he says, " how liable the easiest story, transmitted 
by the word of mouth, is to be essentially altered in the course 
of one or two hundred years." But, to the opinions of these 
learned prelates, I oppose, in the first place, undeniable facts. It 
is, then, certain, that the whole doctrine and practice ot religion, 
including the rites of sacrifice, and, indeed, the whole Sacred 
History, was preserved by the patriarchs, in succession, from 
Adam down to Moses, during the space of twenty-four hundred 
years, by means of tradition : and, when the law was written, 
many most important truths, regarding a future life, the emblems 
and prophecies concerning the Messiah, and the inspiration and 
authenticity of the Sacred Books themselves, were preserved m 
the same way. — Secondly, it is unwarrantable in these prelates 
to compare the essential traditions of religion, with ordinary 
stories : in the truth of these no one has an interest, and no means 
have been provided to preserve them from corruption ; where as, 
the faith once delivered to the saints, the church has ever guarded 
as the apple of her eye, and all ecclesiastical history witnesses 
the extreme care and pains which were taken in ancient times 
by the pastors to instruct the faithful in the tenets and practices 
of their religion, previously to their being baptized ;\ the same 

* Com. View of the Churches, p. 67. t Dr. Porteus, Brief Confut 
t See Fleury's Mceursdes Chret. Hartley, in bishoD Watson's Col. vol. 
f.p. 91. 



Letter XI. 



are generally taken by their successors previously to thje con- 
firmation and first communion of their neophytes at the present 
day. Thirdly, when any fresh controversy arises in the church, 
the fundamental maxim of the bishops and Popes, to whom it 
belongs to decide upon it, is, not to consult their own private 
opinion or interpretation of Scripture, but to inquire what is and 
ever has been the doctrine of the church, concerning it. Hence, 
their cry is and ever has been, on such occasions, as well in 
council as out of it : So we have received : so the universal 
church believes : let there be no new doctrine : none but what 
has been delivered down to us by tradition.* — Fourthly, the tra- 
dition of which we now treat, is not a local but a universal tra- 
dition, as widely spread as the Catholic church itself is, and be- 
ing found every where the same. The maxim of the senten- 
tious Tertullian must be admitted : " Error," he says, " of course, 
varies, but that doctrine which is one and the same among many, 
is not an error but a tradition. "f However liable men and par- 
ticularly illiterate men, are to believe in fables ; yet if, on the 
discovery of America, the inhabitants of it, from Hudson's Bay 
to Cape Horn, had been found to agree in the same account o * 
their origin and general history, we should certainly give credit 
to them. But, fifthly, in the present case, they are not the 
Catholics of different ages and nations alone who vouch for the 
traditions in question, I mean those rejected by Protestants, but. all 
the subsisting heretics and schismatics of former ages without 
exception. The Nestorians and Eutychians, for example, desert- 
ed the Catholic church, in defence of opposite errors, near four- 
teen hundred years ago, and still form regular churches under 
bishops and patriarchs throughout the East : in like manner the 
Greek schismatics, properly so called, broke off from the Latin 
church, for the last time, in the eleventh century. Theirs is 
well known to be the prevailing religion of Christians through- 
out the Turkish and Russian empires. Nevertheless, these and 
all the other Christian sectaries of ancient date, agree upon every 
article in dispute between Catholics and Protestant (except 
that of the Pope's supremacy) with the former and condemn the 
latter.J Let Dr. Porteus and the other controvertists, who de- 
claim against the alleged ignorance and vices of the Catholic 
clergy and laity during the five or six ages preceding the Refor- 
mation, and pretend to show how the tenets which they object 

* " Nil innovetur : nil nisi quod traditum est." Steph. Papa I. 
+ '* Variasse deberet error, sed quod unum apud multos" invenitur, non 
est erratum, sed traditum." Praescrip. advers. Haeret. 

. X See the proofs of this, in the Perpetuite de la Foi, copied from the ori- 
ginal documents, in the French king's library. 



98 



Letter XL 



to might have been introdeced into our church, explain how pre 
cisely the same could have been quietly received by the Nesto- 
rians at Bagdad, the Eutychians at Alexandria, and the Greeks 
at Moscow ! All these, and particularly the last named, were 
ever ready to find fault with us upon subjects of comparatively 
small consequence, such as the use of unleavened bread in the 
sacrament, the days and manner of our fasting, and even the 
mode of shaving our beards ; and yet, so far from objecting to 
the pretended novelties of prayers for the dead, addresses to the 
saints, the mass, the real presence, &c. they have always pro- 
fessed, and continue to profess, these doctrines and practices as 
zealously as we do. 

Finally, by way of the farther answer to his lordship's shame- 
ful calumny, that the ancient " clergy and laity were so univer- 
sally and monstrously ignorant and vicious, that nothing was too 
bad for them to do or too absurd for them to believe," thereby 
insinuating that the former invented and the latter were duped 
into the belief of the articles on which the Catholic church and 
the church of England are divided ; as also by way of farther 
confirming the certainty of tradition, I maintain that it would 
have been much easier for the ancient clergy to corrupt the 
Scriptures than the religious belief of the people. For, it is 
well known that the Scriptures were chiefly in the hands of the 
clergy, and that, before the use of printing, in the fifteenth 
century, the copies of it were renewed and multiplied in the 
monasteries by the labour of the monks, who, if they had been 
so wicked, might with some prospect of success, have attempted 
to alter the New Testament, in particular, as they pleased ; 
whereas, the doctrines and practices of the church were in the 
hands of the people of all civilized nations, and, therefore, could 
not be altered without their knowledge and consent. Hence, 
wherever religious novelties were introduced, a violent opposi- 
tion to them, and, of course, tumults and schisms, would have 
ensued. If they had been generally received in one country, 
as for example, in France, this would have been the occasion of 
their being rejected with redoubled antipathy in a neighbouring 
hostile nation, as, for instance, England. Yet none of these 
disturbances or schisms do we read of, respecting any of the doc- 
trines or practices of our religion, objected to by Protestants, 
either in the same kingdom, or among the different states of 
Christianity. I said that the doctrines and practices of religion 
were in the hands of all "the people," in fact they were* all, in 
every part of the church, obliged to receive the holy sacrament 
at Easter ; now they could not do this without knowing whether 



kit i ] 



Letter XL 



99 



they had been pre /iously taught to consider this as bread and 
wine taken in memory of Christ, or as the real body and blood 
of Christ himself. If they had originally held the former opin- 
ion, could they have been persuaded or dragooned into the lat- 
ter, without violent opposition on their part, and violent perse- 
cution on that of their clergy 1 Again, they could not assist at 
the religious services performed at the funerals of their relations, 
or on the festivals of the saints, without recollecting whether they 
had previously been instructed .o pray for the former, and to in- 
voke the prayers of the latter. If they had not been so instruct- 
ed, would they, one and all, at the same time, and in every coun- 
try, have quietly yielded to the first imposters who preached up 
such supposed superstitions to them ; as, in this case, we are 
sure they must have done ? In a word, there is but one way ot 
accounting for the alleged alteraticms in the doctrine of the 
church, that mentioned by the learned Dr. Bailey ;* which is to 
suppose that, on some one night, all the Christians of the world 
went to sleep sound Protestants, and awoke the next morning 
rank Papists ! 

IV. I now come to consider the benefits derived from the 
Catholic rule or method of religion. The first part of this rule 
conducts us to the second part ; that is to say, tradition conducts 
us to Scripture. We have seen that Protestants, by their own 
confession, are obliged to build the latter upon the former ; in 
doing which they act most inconsistently : whereas Catholics, in 
doing the same thing, act with perfect consistency. Again, 
Protestants in building Scripture, as they do, upon tradition, as 
a mere human testimony, not as a rule of faith, can only form 
an act of human faith, that is to say, an opinion of its being in 
spired ;t whereas Catholics, believing in the tradition of the 
church, as a divine rule, are enabled to believe, and do believe 
in the Scriptures with a firm faith, as the certain Word of God. 
Hence the Catholic church requires her pastors, who are to 
preach and expound the Word of God, to study this second part 
of her rule no less than the first part, with unremitting diligence ; 
and she encourages those of her flock, who are properly qualifi- 
ed and disposed, to read it for their edification. 

In perusing the books of the Old Testament, some of the most 
striking passages are those which regard the prerogatives of 

• He was son of the bishop of Bangor, and becoming a convert to tho 
Catholic church, wrote several works in her defence ; and among the rest, 
I one under the title of these Letters, and another called A Challenge. 

t Chillingworth in his Religion of Protestants, chap. ii. expressly teache3, 
that <l The books of Scripture are not the objects of our faith, ' and that " a 
u an may be saved, who should not believe them to be the Word of God." 



! 



100 Letter XL x 

the future kingdom of the Messiah, namely, the extent, the visi- 
bility, and indefectibility of the church : in examining \he New 
Testament, we find in several of its clearest passages, the 
strongest proofs of its being an infallible guide in the way of 
salvation. The texts alluded to have been already cited. Hence 
we look upon the church with increased veneration, and listen 
to her decisions with redoubled confidence. — But here I think 
it necessary to refute an objection which, I believe, was first 
started by Dr. Still ingfleet, and has since been adopted by many 
other controvertists. They say to us, you argue, in what logi- 
cians call, a vicious circle : for you prove Scripture by your church, 
and then your church by Scripture. This is like John giving a 
character to Thomas, and Thomas a character to John. True it 
is, that I prove the inspiration of Scripture by the tradition of 
the church, and that I prove the infallibility of the church by the 
testimony of Soripture ; but you must take notice, that indepen- 
dently of, and prior to, the testimony of Scripture, I knew from 
tradition, and the general arguments of the credibility of Christi- 
anity, that the church is an illustrious society, instituted by Christ, 
and that its pastors have been appointed by him to guide me in 
the way of salvation. In a word, it is not every kind of mutual 
testimony which runs in a vicious circle : for the Baptist bore 
testimony to Christ, and Christ bore testimony to the Baptist. 

V. The advantage, and even necessity, of having a living, 
speaking authority for preserving peace and order in every so- 
ciety is too obvious to be called in question. The Catholic 
church has such an authority ; the different societies of Pro- 
testants, though they claim it, cannot effectually exercise it, as 
we have shown, on account of their opposite fundamental prin- 
ciple of private judgment. Hence when debates arise among 
Catholics concerning points of faith (for as to scholastic and 
other questions, each one is left to defend his own opinion,) the 
pastors of the church, like judges in regard of civil contentions, 
fail not to examine them by the received rule of faith, and to 
pronounce an authoritative sentence upon them. The dispute is 
thus quashed, and peace is restored : for if any party will not 
hear the church, he is, of course, regarded as a heathen and a 
publican. On the other hand, dissensions in any Protestant 
society, which adheres to its fundamental rule of religious liberty, 
must be irremediable and endless. 

VI. The same method which God has appointed to keep 
peace in his church, he has also appointed to preserve it in the 
breasts of her several children. Hence while other Christians, 
who have no rule of faith but their own fluctuating opinions, are 



Letter XL 



101 



carried about by every wind of doctrine, and are agitated by dread- 
ful doubts and fears, as to the safety of the road they are in ; 
Catholics, being moored to the rock of Christ's church, never 
experience any apprehension whatsoever on this head. The 
truth of this may be ascertained by questioning pious Catholics, 
and particularly those who have been seriously converted from 
any species of Protestantism : such persons are generally found 
to speak in raptures of the peace and security they enjoy in the 
communion of the Catholic church, compared with their doubts 
and fears before they embraced it. Still the death-bed is evi- 
dently the best situation for making this inquiry. I have men- 
tioned, in my former letter, that great numbers of Protestants, at 
the approach of death, seek to be reconciled to the Catholic 
church ; many instances of this are notorious, though many more, 
for obvious reasons, are concealed from public notice : on the 
other hand, a challenge has frequently been made by Catholics 
(among the rest by sir Toby Mathews, Dean Cressy, F. Wal- 
singham, Molines dit Flechiere, and Ulric, duke of Brunswick, 
all of them converts) to the whole world to name a single Catholic, 
who, at the hour of death, expressed a wish to die in any other 
communion than his own ! 

I have now, dear sir, fully proved what I undertook to prove, 
that the rule of faith professed by rational Protestants, that of 
Scripture as interpreted by each person's private judgment, is no 
less fallacious than the rule of fanatics, who imagine themselves 
to be directed by an individual, private inspiration. I have shown 
that this rule is evidently unserviceable to infinitely the greater 
part of mankind ; that it is liable to lead men into error, and that 
it has actually led vast numbers of them into endless errors and 
shocking impieties. The proof of these points was sufficient, 
j according to the principles I laid down at the beginning of our 
controversy, to disprove the rule itself : but I have, moreover, 
demonstrated that our divine Master, Christ, did not establish 
this rule, nor his apostles follow it : that the Protestant churches, 
and that of England, in particular, were not founded according 
to this rule : and that individual Protestants have not been guided 
by it in the choice of their religion : finally, that the adoption of 
it leads to uncertainty and uneasiness of mind in life, and more 
particularly at the hour of death. — On the other hand, I have 
shown that the Catholic rule, that of the entire word of God, 
unwritten as well as written, together with the authority of the 
living pastors of the church in explaining it, was appointed by 
Christ: — was followed by the apostles : —was maintained by 
the holy fathers has been resorted to from necessity, in both 



103 



Letter XII. 



particulars, by the Protestant congregations, though with the 
worst success, from the impossibility of uniting private judgment 
with it : — that tradition lays a firm ground for divine faith in 
Scripture : that these two united together as one rule, and each 
bearing testimony to the living, speaking authority of the church 
in expounding that rule, the latter is preserved in peace and union 
through all ages and nations :*— and, in short, that Catholics, 
by adhering to this rule and authority, live and die in peace and 
security, as far as regards the truth of their religion. 

It remains for you, dear sir, and your religious friends, who 
have called me into this field of controversy, to determine which 
of the two methods you will follow, in settling your religious 
concerns for time and FOR ETERNITY ! Were it possible 
for me to err in following the Catholic method, with such a 
mass of evidence in its favour, methinks I could answer at the 
judgment seat of Eternal Truth, with a pious writer of the middle 
ages : " Lord, if I have been deceived, thou art the author of my 
error."! Whereas should you be found to have mistaken the 
right way, by depending upon your own private opinion, contrary 
to the directions of your authorized guides, what would you be 
able to allege in excuse for such presumption ?— Think of this 
while you have time, and pray humbly and earnestly for God's 
holy grace to enlighten and strengthen you. 

I am, Dear Sir, &c. J. M. 



LETTER XII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
objections answered. 

Dear Sir, 

I AM not forgetful of the promise I made in my last letter 
but one, to answer the contents of those which I had then re- 
ceived from yourself, Mr. Topham, and Mr. Askew. Within 
these few days I have received other letters from yourself and 
Mr. Topham, which, equally with the former, call for my atten- 
tion to their substance. However, it would take up a great deal 
of time to write separate answers to each of these letters, and, 
as I know, that they are arguments, and not formalities, which 
you expect from me, I shall make this letter a general reply to 
the several objections contained in them all, with the exception 
of such as have been answered in my last to you. Conceiving, 
also, that it will contribute to the brevity and perspicuity of 

* " Domicillium pads et unitatis."-r-S. Cyp. Ep. 46. 
t Hugh of St. Victor. 



Letter XII. 



103 



my letter, if I arrange the several objections, from whomsoevei 
they came, under their proper heads ; and if, on this occasion. 
I make use of the scholastic instead of the epistolary style, I 
shall adopt both these methods. I must, however, remark, before 
I enter upon my task, that most of the objections appear to have 
been borrowed from the bishop of London's book called a Brief 
Confutation of the Errors of Popery. This was extracted from 
archbishop Seeker's Sermons on the same subject ; which, 
themselves, were culled out of his predecessor Tillotson's pulpit 
controversy. Hence you may justly consider your arguments as 
the strongest which can be brought against the Catholic rule and 
religion. Under this persuasion the work in question has been 
selected for gratuitous distribution, by your tract societies, wher- 
ever they particularly wish to restrain or suppress Catholicity. 

Against the Catholic rule it is objected that Christ referred 
the Jews to the Scriptures : Search the Scriptures ; for in them 
ye think ye have eternal life : and they are they which testify of 
me. John v. 35. Again, the Jews of Berea are commended by 
the sacred penman, in that they search the Scriptures daily, 
whether these things were so. Acts xvii. 1 1 . 

Before I enter on the discussion of any part of Scripture, 
with you or your friends, I am bound, dear sir, in conformity 
with my rule of faith, as explained by the fathers, and particu- 
larly by Tertuilian, to protest against your or their right to ar- 
gue from Scripture, and, of course, to deny any need there is of 
my replying to any objection which you may draw from it. For 
1 have reminded you that, No prophecy of Scripture is of any 
private interpretation ; and 1 have proved to you that the whole 
business of the Scriptures belongs to the church ; she has pre- 
served them, she vouches for them, and, she alone, by confronting 
them, and by the help of tradition, authoritatively explains them. 
Hence it is impossible that the real sense of Scripture should 
ever be against her and her doctrine ; and hence, of course, I 
might quash every objection which you can draw from any pas- 
sage in it by this short reply, The church understands the passage 
differently from you ; therefore you mistake its meaning. Never- 
theless, as charity beareth all things and never faileth, I will, for 
the better satisfying of you and your friends, quite my vantage 
ground for the present, and answer distinctly to every text not yet 
answered by me, which any of you, gentlemen, or which Dr. Por- 
teus himself, has brought against the Catholic method of religion. 

By way of answering your first objection, let me ask you» 
whether Christ, by telling the Jews to search the Scriptures in 
timated that they were not to believe in his unwritten Word 



104 



Letter XII. 



which he was then preaching, nor to hear his apostles and their 
successors, with whom he promised to remain forever ? I ask, 
secondly, on what particular question Christ referred to the 
Scripture, namely, the Old Scripture ? (for no part of the New 
was then written) was it on any question that has been or might 
be agitated among Christians ? No, certainly : the sole ques- 
tion between him and the infidel Jews, was, whether he was or 
was not the Messiah : in proof that he was the Messiah, he ad- 
duced the ordinary motives of credibility, as they have been de- 
tailed by your late worthy rector, Mr. Carey, the miracles he 
wrought, and the prophecies in the Old Testamerft that were 
fulfilled in him, as likewise the testimony of St. John the Bap- 
tist. The same is to be said of the commendations bestowed 
by St. Luke on the Bereans ; they searched the ancient prophe 
cies, to verify that the Messiah was to be born at such a time, 
and in such a place, and that his life and his death were to be 
marked by such and such circmstances. We still refer Jews 
and other Infidels to the same proofs of Christianity, without 
saying any thing yet to them about our rule or judge of contro- 
versies. 

Dr. Porteus objects what St. Luke says, at the beginning of 
his Gospel : It seemed good to me also, having had perfect under- 
standing of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in 
order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the cer- 
tainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. Again St. 
John says, c. XX. These things are written that ye might believe 
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye 
might have life through his name. 

Answer. It is difficult to conceive how his lordship can draw 
an argument from these texts against the Catholic rule. Surely 
he does not gather from the words of St. Luke, that Theophilus 
did not believe the articles in which he had been instructed by 
word of mouth till he read this Gospel ! or that the evangelist 
gainsayed the authority given by Christ to his disciples : He that 
hcareth you heareth me, which he himself records, Luke x. 16. In 
like manner the prelate cannot suppose that this testimony of 
St. John sets aside other testimonies of Christ's divinity, or that 
our belief in this single article without other conditions, will 
ensure eternal life. 

Having quoted these texts, which appear to me inconclusive, 
the bishop adds, by way of proving that Scripture is sufficiently 
intelligible, " Surely the apostles were not worse writers, with 
divine assistance, than others commonly are without it."* 



P. 4. 



Letter XIL 



105 



I will not here repeat the arguments and testimonies already 
brought* to show the great obscurity of a considerable portion of 
the Bible, particularly with respect to the bulk of mankind, be- 
cause it is sufficient to refer to the clear words of St. Peter, 
declaring that there are in the Epistles of St. Paul, some things 
hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as 
they do all the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction, (2 Pe- 
ter iii. 16,) and to the instances, which occur in the Gospels, 
of the very apostles frequently misunderstanding the meaning of 
their divine Master. 

The learned prelate says, elsewhere,! " The New Testamein 
supposes them (the generality of the people) capable of judging 
for themselves, and accordingly requires them not only to try 
the spirits whether they be of God, 1 John iv. 1 , but to prove all 
things and holdfast that which is good, 1 Thess. v. 21." 

Answer. True : St. John tells the Christians, to whom he 
writes to try the spirits whether they are of God, because, he adds, 
many false prophets are gone out into the world. But then he 
gives them two rules for making trial : Hereby ye know the spirit 
of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come 
in the flesh, is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that 
Jesus is come in the flesh, (which was denied by the heretics of 
that time, the disciples of Simon and Cerinthus) is not of God. 
In this, the apostle tells the Christians to see whether the doc- 
trine of these spirits was or was not conformable to that which 
they had learnt from the church. The second rule was, He that 
knoweth God, heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth not us. 
Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error : name- 
ly, he bid them observe whether these teachers did or did not 
listen to the divinely-constituted pastors of the church. Dr. P. 
is evidently here quoting Scripture for our rule, not against it. 
The same is to be said of the other text. Prophesy was exceed- 
ingly common at the beginning of the church ; but, as we have just 
seen, there were false prophets as well as true prophets : hence, 
while the apostle defends this supernatural gift in general, De- 
spise not prophesyings, he admonishes the Thessalonians to prove 
them : not certainly by their private opinions, which would be the 
j - source of endless discord ; but, by the established rules of the 
church, and particularly by that which he tells them to hold fast , 
2 Thess. ii. 15, namely, tradition. 

Dr. P. in another place,J urges the exhortation of St. Paul to 
Timothy, " Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned 
and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned 



Letter ix. 



t P. 19, 



1* % 



106 



Letter XII. 



them : and that from a child thou hast known the holy Scrip- 
tures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through 
faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of 
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof," &c. 2 Tim. iii. 

Answer. Does, then, the prelate mean to say, that the form 
of sound words which Timothy had heard from St.- Paul, and 
which he was commanded to hold fast, 2 Tim. i. 13, was all con- 
tained in the Old Testament, the only Scripture which he could 
have read in his childhood 1 Or that, in this he could have 
learned the mysteries of the Trinity and the incarnation, or the or- 
dinances of baptism and the eucharist ? The first part of the ques 
tion is a general commendation of tradition, the latter of Scripture 

Against tradition, Dr. P. and yourself quote* Mark vii, where 
the Pharisees and Scribes asked Christ, Why walk not thy 
disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread 
with unwashed hands ? He answered and said to them, In vain 
do they worship me, teaching FORf doctrines the commandments 
of men. For, laying aside the commandments of God, ye hold the 
tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups, <SfC. 

Answer. Among the traditions which prevailed at the time 
of our Saviour, some were divine, such as the inspiration of the 
books of Moses and the other prophets, the resurrection of the 
body, and the last judgment, which assuredly Christ did not 
condemn, but confirm. There were others, merely human, and 
of a recent date, introduced, as St. Jerome informs us, by Sam- 
mai, Killel, Achiba, and other Pharisees, from which the Tal- 
mud is chiefly gathered. These, of course, were never obliga- 
tory. In like manner, there are among Catholics divine tradi- 
tions, such as the inspiration of the Gospels, the divine, obser- 
vation of the Lord's day, the lawfulness of invoking the prayers 
of the saints, and other things not clearly contained in Scripture ; 
and there are among many Catholics, historical and even fabu- 
lous traditions. J Now, it is the former, as avowed to be divine 
by the church, that we appeal: of the others, every one may 
judge as he thinks best. 

You both, likewise, quote Coloss. ii. 8. Beware lest any man 
spoil (cheat) you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the 
tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after 
Christ. 

* P. 11. t This particle FOR, which in some degree affects the sense, 
la a corrupt interpolation as appears from the original Greek. 

N. B. The texts which Dr P. refers to I quote from the common Bible ; 
his citations, of it are frequently inaccurate. 

t Such are the acts of sevaral saints condemned by Pope Gelasiu3 ; such 
also was the opiuion of Christ's reifcjn upon earth for a thousand years. 



Letter XII. 



10? 



Answer. The apostle himself informs the Collossians what 
kind of traditions he here speaks of, where he says, Let no man 
therefore judge you in meat or drink, or in respect of any holiday, 
cr of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. The ancient fathers 
and ecclesiastical historians inform us, that, in the age of the 
apostles, many Jews and Pagan philosophers professed Christi- 
anity, but endeavoured to allay with it their respective supersti- 
tions and vain speculations, absolutely inconsistent with the 
doctrine of the Gospel. It was against these St. Paul wrote, 
not against those traditions which he commanded his converts 
to holdfast to, whether they had been taught by word or by Epis 
tie, 2 Thess. ii. 15; nor those traditions which he commend- 
ed his other converts for keeping, 1 Cor. xi. 2.* Finally, the 
apostles, in that passage, did not abrogate this his awful 
sentence, now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that 
walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received 
of us. 2 Thess. hi. 6. 

Against the infallibility of the church in deciding questions of 
faith, I am referred to various other arguments made use of by 
Dr. Porteus ; and, in the first place, the following : " Romanists 
themselves own that men must use their eyes, to find this guide ; 
why then must they put them out, to follow him ?"f I answer 
by the following comparisons. Every prudent man makes use 
of his reason, to find out an able physician to take care of his 
health, and an able lawyer to secure his property : but having 
found these, to his full satisfaction, does he dispute with the for- 
mer about the quality of medicines, or with the latter about forms 
of law ? Thus the Catholic makes use of his reason, to observe 
which, among the rival communions, is the church that Christ 
established and promised to remain with : having ascertained 
that, by the plain acknowledged marks which this church bears, 
he trusts his soul to her unerring judgment, in preference to his 
own fluctuating opinion. 

Dr. Porteus adds, " Ninety-nine parts in every hundred of 
their (the Catholic) communion, have no other rule to follow, 
but what a few priests and private writers tell them."J Accord- 
ing to this mode of reasoning, a loyal subject does not make any 
act of the legislature the rule of his civil conduct, because, per- 
haps, he learns it only from a printed paper, or the proclamation 
of the bell-man. Most likely the Catholic peasant learns the 



* The English Testament puts the word ordinance here for traditions, 
contrary to the sense of the original Greek, and even the authority of Beza, 
f P. \$. * Ibid. 



108 



Letter XII 



doctrine of the church from his parish priest ; but then he knows 
that the doctrine of this priest must be conformable to that of 
his bishop, and that otherwise he will soon, be called to an ac- 
count for it. He knows also that the doctrine of the bishop 
himself must be conformable to that of the other bishops and the 
Pope, and that it is a fundamental maxim with them all, never 
to admit of any tenet but such as is believed by all the bishops, 
and was believed by their predecessors up to the apostles them- 
selves. 

The prelate gives a " rule for the unlearned and ignorant in 
religion, (that is to say of ninety-nine in every hundred of them,) 
which is this : Let each man improve his own judgment, and 
increase his own knowledge as much as he can ; and be fully 
assured that God will expect no more." — What ? If Christ has 
given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists and 
some pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting the saints, for the 
work of the ministry, Ephes. iv. 11, does he not expect that 
Christians should harken to them, and obey them ? The prelate 
goes on : " In matters, for which he must rely on authority" 
(mere Scripture then, and private judgment, according to the 
bishop himself, are not always a sufficient rule, even for Protes- 
tants, but they must in some matters rely on church authority,) 
" let him rely on the authority of that church which God's pro- 
vidence has placed him under," (that is to say, whether Catholic, 
Protestant, Socinian, Antinomian, Jewish, &c.) " rather than 
another which he hath nothing to do with," (every Christian has, 
or ought to have, something to do with Christ's true church,) 
and " trust to those, who, by encouraging free inquiry, appear to 
love truth ; rather than such as, by requiring all their doctrines 
to be implicitly obeyed, seem conscious that they will not bear 
to be fairly tried." What, my lord, would you have me trust 
those men, who have just now deceived me, by assuring me 
that 1 should not stand in need of guides at all, rather than those 
who told me, from the first, of the perplexities in which I find 
myself entangled! Again, do you advise me to prefer these 
conductors, who are forced to confess that they may mislead me, 
to those others who assure me, and this upon such strong grounds, 
that they will conduct me with perfect safety ! 

Our Episcopal controvertist finishes his admonition " to the 
ignorant and unlearned," with an address, calculated for the 
stupid and bigoted. He says, " Let others build on fathers and 
Popes, on traditions and councils, what they will : let us continue 
firm, as we are, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Ephes ii 



Letter XII. 



109 



What empty declamation! Do then the fathers, Popes, and 
councils, profess or attempt to build religion on any other foun- 
dation than the revelation made by God to the apostles and 
prophets ? His lordship knows full well that they do not, and 
that the only questions at issue are these three : First, Whethei 
this revelation has not been made and conveyed by the unwritten 
as well as by the written Word of God ? Secondly, Whether 
Christ did not commit this Word to his apostles and their suc- 
cessors, till the end of the world, for them to preserve and an- 
nounce it ? Lastly, Whether, independently of this commission, 
it is consistent with common sense, for each Protestant plough- 
man and mechanic to persuade himself that he, individually, (for 
he cannot, according to his rule, build on the opinion of other 
Protestants, though he could find any whose faith exactly tallied 
with his own,) that he, 1 say, individually, understands the 
Scriptures better than all the doctors and bishops of the church, 
who now are, or even have been since the time of the apostles !* 
One of your Salopian friends, in writing to me, ridicules the 
idea of infallibility being lodged in any mortal man, or number 
of men. Hence, it is fair to conclude, that he does not look 
upon himself to be infallible : now nothing short of a man's 
conviction of his own infallibility, one might think, would put 
him on preferring his own judgment, in matters of religion, to 
that of the church of all ages and all nations. Secondly, if this 
objection were valid, it would prove that the apostles themselves 
were not infallible. Finally, 1 could wish your friend to form a 
right idea of this matter. The infallibility, then, of our church, 
is not a power of telling all things past, present, and to come, 
such as the Pagans ascribed to their oracles ; but merely the 
aid of God's holy spirit, to enable her truly to decide what her 
faith is, and ever has been, in such articles as have been made 
known to her by Scripture and tradition. This definition fur- 
nishes answers to diverse other objections and questions of Dr. 
P. The church does not decide the controversy concerning 
the conception of the Blessed Virgin, and several other disputed 
points, because she sees nothing absolutely clear and certain 
concerning them, either in the written or the unwritten Word ; 
and therefore leaves her children to form their own opinions 
concerning them. She does not dictate an exposition of the 
whole Bible, because she has no tradition concerning a very 

• The great Bossuet obliged the minister, Claude, in his conference with 
him, openly to avow this principle ; which, in fact, every consistent Pro- 
testant must avow, who maintains his private interpretation of the Bible to 
be the only rule of his faith. 

in 



110 



Letter XII. 



great proportion of it, as for example, concerning the prophecy of 
Enoch; quoted by Jude, 14, and the baptism for the dead, of 
which St. Paul makes mention, 1 Cor. xv. 29, and the chronolo- 
gies and genealogies in Genesis. The "prelate urges that the 
words of St. Paul, where he declares that, The church of God is 
the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15, may be translated 
a different way from that received. — True : they may, but not 
without altering the original Greek, as also the common Protes- 
tant version. He says, it was ordained in the Old Law that 
every controversy should be decided by the priests and Levites 
Deut. xvii. 8, and yet that these avowedly erred in rejecting 
Christ. — True : but the Law had then run its destined course, 
and the divine assistance failed the priests in the very act of their 
rejecting the promised Messiah, who was then before them, He 
adds, that St. Paul in his Epistle to the church of Rome bids 
her not be high minded, but fear ; for (he adds) if God spared 
not the Jews, take heed lest he also spare not thee, Rom. xi. — 
Supposing the quotation to be accurate, and that the threat is 
particularly addressed to the Christians of Rome ; what is that to 
the present purpose ? We never supposed the promises of Christ 
to belong to them or their successors more than to the inhabitants 
of any other city. Indeed it is the opinion of some of our most 
learned commentators, that before the end of the world, Rome 
will relapse into its former Paganism * In a r^ord, the promises 
of our Saviour, that helVs gates shall not prevail against his 
church — that his Holy Spirit shall lead it into all truth — and that 
he himself will remain with it for ever, were made to the church 
of all nations, and all times, in communion with St. Peter and 
his successors, the bishops of Rome : and as these promises 
have been fulfilled, during a succession of eighteen centuries, 
contrary to the usual and natural course of events, and by the 
visible protection of the Almighty, so we rest assured that he 
will continue to fulfil them, till the church militant shall be 
wholly transformed into the church triumphant in the heavenly 
kingdom. 

Finally, his lordship, with other controvertists, objects against 
the infallibility of the Catholic church, that its advocates are not 
agreed where to lodge this prerogative ; some ascribing it to 
the Pope, others to a general council, or to the bishops dispersed 
throughout the church. True, schoolmen discuss some such 
points : but let me ask his lordship, whether he finds any Ca- 
tholic who denies or doubts that a general council, with the 
Pope at its head, or that the Pope himself, issuing a doctrinal 

• See Cornel, a Lapid. in Apocalyp. 



Letter XII. 



decision, which is received by the great body of Catholic bishops, 
is secure from error 1 Most certainly not : and hence he may 
gather where all Catholics agree in lodging infallibility. In like 
manner, with respect to our national constitution : some lawyers 
hold that a royal proclamation, in such and such circumstances, 
has the force of a law, others that a vote of the house of lord-s, 
or of the commons, or of both houses together, has the same 
strength ; but all subjects acknowledge that an act of the king, 
lords, and commons, is binding upon them ; and this suffices for 
all practical purposes. 

But when, dear sir, will there be an end of the objections and 
cavils of men, whose pride, ambition, or interest, leads them to 
deny the plainest truths ! You have seen those which the inge- 
nuity and learning of the Porteus's, Seekers, and Tillotsons 
have raised against the unchangeable Catholic rule and inter- 
preter of faith : say, is there any thing sufficiently clear and 
certain in them to oppose to the luminous and sure principles, 
on which the Catholic method is placed ? Do they afford you 
a sure footing, to support you against all doubts and fears on 
the score of your religion, especially under the apprehension of 
approaching dissolution ? If you answer affirmatively, I have 
nothing more to say ; but if you cannot so answer, and, if you 
justly dread undertaking your voyage to eternity on. the pre- 
sumption of your private judgment, a presumption which you 
have clearly seen has led so many other rash Christians to cer- 
tain shipwreck, follow the example of those who have happily 
arrived at the port which you are in quest of : in other words, 
listen to the advice of the holy patriarch to his son : Then 
Tobias answered his father — / know not the way, <$fc. : — then his 
father said— Seek thee a faithful guide. Tob. v. You will no 
sooner have sacrificed your own wavering judgment, and have 
submitted to follow the guide, whom your heavenly Father has 
provided for you, than you will feel a deep conviction that you 
are in the right and secure way ; and very soon you will be 
enabled to join with the happy converts of ancient and modern 
times,* in this hymn of praise : " I give thee thanks O God, my 
enlightener and deliverer ; for that thou hast opened the eyes of 
my soul to know thee. Alas ! too late have I known thee, O 
kneient and eternal truth ! too late have I known thee." 

I am, Dear Sir, yours, &c. J. M. 

* St Austin's Soliloquies, c. 33, quoted by Deau Cressy, Exomol. p. 655. 



THE END 



OF 

RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY. 



PART II. 

LETTER XIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
on the true church. 

Dear Sir, 

The Letters which I have received from you, and some others 
of your religious society, satisfy me that I have not altogether 
lost my labours in endeavouring to prove to you, that the private 
interpretation of holy Scripture is not a more certain rule of faith, 
than an imaginary private inspiration is ; and, in short, that the 
church of Christ is the only sure expounder of the doctrine of 
Christ. Thus much you, sir, in particular, candidly acknow- 
ledge : but you ask me, on the part of some of your friends as 
well as yourself, why, in case you " must rely on authority," as 
bishop Porteus confesses " the unlearned must," that is to say, 
the great bulk of mankind, you should not, as he advises you, 
" rely on the authority of that church, whieh God's providence 
hath placed you under, rather than that of another which you 
have nothing to do with."* and why you may not trust to the 
church of England, in particular, to guide you in your road to 
heaven, with equal security as to the church of Rome ? — Before 
I answer you, permit me to congratulate with you on your ad- 
vance towards the clear sight of the whole truth of revelation. 
As long as you professed to hunt out the several articles of this, 
one by one, through the several books of Scripture, and under 
all the difficulties and uncertainties which I have clearly shown 
to attend this study, your task was interminable, and your suc- 
cess hopeless : whereas, now, by taking the church of God for 
your guide, you have but one simple inquiry to make : Which is 
this church? a question that admits of being solved by men of 

• Confutation of Errors of Popery, p. 20. 



Letter XIII. 



113 



good will with equal certainty and facility. I say, there is but 
one inquiry to be made : Which is the true church ? because if 
there is any one religious truth more evident than the rest from 
reason, from the Scriptures, both Old* and New,f from the 
apostles' creed,]: and from constant tradition, it is this, that "the 
Catholic church preserves the true worship of the Deity ; she 
being the fountain of truth, the house of faith, and the temple of 
God," as an ancient father of the church expresses it.§ Hence 
it is as clear as the noon-day light, that by solving this one ques 
tion : Which is the true church ? you will at once solve every 
question of religious controversy that ever has, or that ever can 
be agitated. You will not need to spend your life in studying 
the sacred Scriptures in their original languages, and their au- 
thentic copies, and in confronting passages with each other, from 
Genesis to Revelation, a task by no means calculated, as is evi- 
dent, for the bulk of mankind : you will only have to hear what 
the church teaches upon the several articles of her faith, in 
order to know with certainty what God revealed concerning 
them. Neither need you hearken to contending sects, and doc- 
tors of the present, or of past times : you will need only to hear 
the church, which, indeed, Christ commands you to hear under 
pain of being treated as a heathen or a publican, Matt, xviii. 17. 

I now proceed, dear sir, to your question ; why, admitting the 
necessity of being guided by the church, may not you and your 
friends submit to be guided by the church of England, or any 
other Protestant church to which you respectively belong 1 — My 
answer is ; because no such church professes, nor, consistently 
with the fundamental Protestant rule of private judgment, can 
profess to be a guide in mattters of religion. If you admit, but 
for an instant, church authority, then Luther, Calvin, and Cran- 
mer, with all the other founders of Protestantism, were evidently 

* Speaking of the future church of the Gentiles, the Almighty promises, 
by Isaiah : Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear, &c. : as I have sworn 
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so 1 have sworn 
that I would nut be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains 
shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from 
thee, Sec. liv. See also lix. lx. lxiii. Jerem xxxiii. Ezech. xxxvii. Dan. 
ii. Psalm lxxxix. 

t Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it. Matt. xvi. 18. J am with you all days even until THE 
END OF THE WORLD. Matt, xxviii. 20. I will pray the Father and 
he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you FOR EVER. 
even the Spirit of Truth — hewill teachyou ALL TRUTH, John xiv. 16. &c, 
The House of God, which is the Church of the living God, THE PILLAR 
AND GROUND OF TRUTH. 1 Tim i ii. 14. 

X I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY C \TH0LIC CHURCH. Art. ir. 

f Lactan, De Divin. Insti* 4. 
19* 



114 



Letter XIII. 



heretics, by rebelling against it. In short, no other church but 

the Catholic can claim to be a religious guide, because evidently 
she alone is the true church of Christ. This assertion leads me 
to the proof of what I asserted above, respecting the facility and 
certainty with which persons of good will may solve that most 
important question : Which is the true church ? 

Luther,* Calvin,f the church of England,}: assign as the char- 
acteristics, or marks of the true church of Christ, Truth of doc- 
trine, and the right administration of the sacraments. But to 
follow this method of rinding out the true church, would be to 
throw ourselves back into those endless controversies concern- 
ing the true doctrine, and the right discipline, which it is my 
present object to put an end to, by demonstrating, at once, which 
is the true church. To show the inconsistency of the Protestant 
method, let us suppose that some stranger were to inquire, at 
the levee of his neighbour, which of the personages present is the 
Prince Regent ? and that he was to receive for answer, it is the 
king's eldest son : would this answer, however true, be of any 
use to the inquirer ? Evidently not. Whereas, if he were told 
that the prince wore such and such clothes and ornaments, and 
was seated in such and such a place, these exterior marks would, 
at once, put him in possession of the information he was in search 
of. Thus we Catholics, when we are asked, which are the marks 
of the true church 1 point out certain exterior, visible marks, 
such as plain, unlearned persons can discover, if they will take 
ordinary pains for this purpose, no less than persons of the great- 
est abilities and literature, at the same time that they are the 
very marks of this church, which, as I said above, natural rea- 
son, the Scriptures, the creeds, and the fathers, assign and de- 
monstrate to be the true marks of it. Yes, my dear sir, these 
marks of the true church are so plain in themselves, and so 
evidently point it out, that fools cannot err, as the prophet fore- 
told, Isai. xxxv. 8, in their road to it. They are the flaming 
beacons, which for ever shine on the mountain at the top of the 
mountains of the Lord's house, Isai. ii. 2. In short, the particular 
motives for credibility, which point out the true church of Christ, 
demonstrate this with no less certitude and evidence, than the 
general motives of credibility demonstrate the truth of the Chris- 
tian religion. 

The chief marks of the true church, which I shall here assign, 
are not only conformable to reason, Scripture, and tradition, but, 
which is a most fortunate circumstance, they are such as the 
church of England, and most other respectable denominations of 



• De Concil. Eccles. 



t Instit. 1. 41. 



X Art 19 



Letter XIV. 115 



Protestants, acknowledge and profess to believe in. no less than 
Catholics. Yes, dear sir, they are contained in those Creeds 
which you recite in your daily prayers, and proclaim in your 
solemn worship. In fact, what do you say of the church you 
believe in, when you repeat the Apostles' Creed ? You say, I 
BELIEVE IN THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH. Again 
how is this church more particularly described in the Nicene 
Creed, which makes part of your public liturgy ? In this you 
say, 1 BELIEVE IN ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC 
CHURCH.* Hence it evidently follows that the church which 
you, no less than we, profess to believe in, is possessed of these 
four marks: UNITY, SANCTITY, CATHOLICITY, and 
APOSTOLICITY. It is agreed upon, then, that all we have 
to do, by way of discovering the true church, is to find out which 
of the rival churchs, or communions, is peculiarly ONE — HOLY 
—CATHOLIC— and APOSTOLIC. Thrice happy, dear sir, I 
deem it, that we agree together, by the terms of our common 
creeds, in a matter of such infinite importance for the happy ter- 
mination of all our controversies, as are these qualities, or charac- 
ters of the true church, which ever that may be found to be ! Still, 
notwithstanding this agreement in our creeds, I shall not omit to 
illustrate these characters, or marks, as I treat of them, by argu- 
ments from reason, Scripture, and the ancient fathers. 

I am, dear sir, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XIV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
unity of the church. 

Dear Sir, 

Nothing is more clear to natural reason, than that God can- 
not be the author of different religions ; for being the Eternal 
Truth, he cannot reveal contradictory doctrines, and, being at 
the same time, the Eternal Wisdom, and the God of Peace, he 
cannot establish a kingdom divided against itself. Hence it fol- 
lows, that the church of Christ must be strictly ONE ; one in 
doctrine, one in worship, and one in government. This mark of 
unity in the true church, which is so clear from reason, is still 
more clear from the following passages of Holy Writ. Our Sa- 
viour, then, speaking of himself, in the character of the good 
shepherd, says, / have other sheep (the Gentiles) which are not 
oj this fold ; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice f 

• Order of Administration of the Lord's iSupper. 



116 



Letter XIV. 



und there shall be ONE FOLD, and one shepherd, John x. 
16. To the same effect addressing his heavenly Father, pre- 
viously to his passion, he says, I pray for all that shall believe 
in me, that THEY MAY BE ONE, as thou Father, art in me 
and I in thee, John xvii. 20, 21. In like manner St. Paul em- 
phatically inculcates the unity of the church, where* he writes, 
We, being many, are ONE BODY in Christ, and every one mem-> 
bers one of another, Rom. xii. 5. Again he writes, There is 
ONE BODY and one spirit, as you are called in one hope of your 
calling; one Lord, ONE FAITH, and one baptism. Ephes. 
iv. 4, 5. Conformably to this doctrine, respecting the neces- 
sary unity of the church, this apostle reckons HERESIES 
among the sins which exclude from the kingdom of God, Gal. v. 
20. and he requires that a man who is a heretic, after the first 
and second admonition, be rejected, Tit. iii. 10. 

The apostolical fathers, St. Polycarp and St. Ignatius, in their 
published Epistles, hold precisely the same language on this 
subject with St. Paul, as does also their disciple St. Irenseus, 
who writes thus, " No reformation can be so advantageous as 
the evil of schism is pernicious."* The great light of the third 
century, St. Cyprian, has left us a whole book on the unity of 
the church, in which, among other similar passages, he writes 
as follows : " There is but one God, and one Christ, and one 
faith, and a people joined in one solid body with the cement of 
concord. This unity cannot suffer a division, nor this one body 
bear to be disjoined. — He cannot have God for his father, who 
has not the church for his mother. If any one could escape the 
deluge out of Noah's ark, he who is out of the church may also 
escape. To abandon the church is a crime, which blood cannot 
wash away. Such a one may be killed, but he cannot be crown- 
ed."! l n tne fourth century, the illustrious St. John Chrysostom, 
writes thus : " We know that salvation belongs to the church 
alone, and that no one can partake of Christ, nor be saved out of 
the Catholic church and faithP\ The language of St. Augustin, 
in the fifth century, is equally strong on this subject, in numerous 
passages. Among others the Synodical epistle of the council 
of Zerta, in 412, drawn up by this saint, tells the Donatist. 
schismatics, " Whoever is separated from this Catholic church, 
however innocently he may think he lives, for this crime 
alone, that he is separated from the unity of Christ, will not 
have life, but the anger of God remains upon him."§ Not less 
emphatical to the same effect, is the testimony of St. Fulgentius 



• De Hair. 1. i. c. 3 
t Horn. 1. in Pasc 



t Cypr. de Unit. Oxon, p. 109. 
§ Concil. Labbe, torn. ii. p- 1520. 



Letter XV. 



117 



and St. Gregory the Great, in the sixth century, in various pas- 
sages of their writings ; I shall content myself with citing ona 
of them. " Out of this church," says the former father, " neither 
the name of Christian avails, nor does baptism save, nor is a clean 
sacrifice offered, nor is there forgiveness of sins, nor is the hap- 
piness of eternal life to be found."* In short, such has been the 
language of the fathers and doctors of the church in all ages, 
concerning her essential unity, and the indispensable obligation 
of being united to her. Such also have been the formal decla- 
rations of the church herself in those decrees, by which she has 
condemned and anathematized the several heretics and schisma- 
tics that have dogmatized in succession, whatever has been the 
quality of their errors, or the pretext for their disunion. 

I am, dear Sir, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 

i protestant disunion. 

1 Dear Sir, 

i In the inquiry I am about to make respecting the church or 
'■ society of Christians, to which this mark of unity belongs, it 
1 will be sufficient for my purpose to consider, that of Protest- 
1 ants, on one hand, and that of Catholics on the other. To speak 
1 properly, however, it is an absurdity to talk of the church or 
i society of Protestants ; for the term PROTESTANT expresses 
I nothing positive, much less any union or association among them : 
l it barely signifies one who protests or declares against some 
• other person or persons, thing or things ; and in the present 
|| instance it signifies those who protest against the Catholic church. 
' Hence there may be, and there are, numberless sects of Protes- 
\ tants, divided from each other in every thing, except in opposing 
, their true mother, the Catholic church. St. Austin reckons up 
« 

I * Lib. de Remiss. Peccat. c. 23. — N. B. This doctrine concerning the 

unity of the church, and the necessity of adhering to it, under pain of dam- 
' nation, which appears so rigid to modern Protestants, was almost univer- 

sally taught by their predecessors : as, for example, by Calvin, 1. iv. Instit. 

1. and Beza, Confess. Fid. c. v. ; by the Huguenots, in their Catechism ; 
I by the Scotch, in their Profession of 15G8 ; by the church of England, Art 

IB ; by the celebrated bishop Pearson, &c. The last named writes thus : 
''■ " Christ never appointed two ways to heaven ; nor did he build a church, 
! to save some, and make another institution for other men's salvation. As 

none were saved from the deluge but such as were within the ark of Noah — 

so none shall ever escape the eternal wrath of God, which belong not to the 

church of God."— Exposit of Creed, p. 249. 



i LB Letter XV. 

ninety heresies which had protested against the church before 
his time, that is, during the first four hundred years of her ex- 
istence ; and ecclesiastical writers have counted about the same 
number, who rose up since that period, down to the era of Lu- 
ther's protestation, which took place early in the sixteenth cen- 
tury : whereas, from the last montioned era, to the end of the 
same century, Staphylus and cardinal Hosius enumerated two 
hundred and seventy different sects of Protestants : and, alas ! 
how have Protestant sects, beyond reckoning and description, 
multiplied, during the last two hundred years ! Thus has the 
observation of the above cited holy father been verified in modern, 
no less than it was in former ages, where he exclaims : " Into 
how many morsels have those sects been broken who have 
divided themselves from the unity of the church !"* You are 
not ignorant that the illustrious Bossuet has written two con- 
siderable volumes on the Variations of the Protestants ; chiefly 
on those of the Lutheran and the Calvinistic pedigress. Nume- 
rous other variations, dissensions, and mutual persecutions, even 
to the extremity of death,t which have taken place among them, 
I have had occasion to mention in my former letters and other 
works.J I have also quoted the lamentations of Calvin, Dudith, 
and other heads of the Protestants, on the subjects of these divi- 
sions. You will recollect, in particular, what the latter writes 
concerning those differences ; " Our people are carried away 
by every wind of doctrine. If you know what their belief is to- 
day, you cannot tell what it will be to-morrow. Is there one 
article of religion, in which these churches, who are at war with 

* St. Aug. contra Petolian, 

t Luther pronounced the Sacramentarians, namely, the Calvinists, Zuing- ! 
lians, and those Protestants in general, who denied the real presence of 
Christ in the sacrament, heretics, and damned souls, for whom it is not laic 
fid to pray. Epist. ad Arginten. Catech. Parv. Comment in Gen. His fol- 
lowers persecuted Bucer, Melancthon's nephew, with imprisonment, and 
Crellius to death, for endeavouring to soften their master's doctrine in this \ 
point. Mosheim by Maclaine, vol- iv. p. 341 — 353. Zuinglius, while he 
deified Hercules, Theseus. &c. condemned the Anabaptists to be drowned, . 
pronouncing this sentence on Felix Mans : " Qui iterum merguntmergan- } 
tur ;" which sentence was accordingly executed at Zurich. Limborch. j 
Introd. 71 . Not content with anathematizing and imprisoning those reform- 1 
ers who dissented from his system, John Calvin caused two of them, Ser- j 
vetus and Gruet, to be put to death. The presbyterians of Holland and \ 
New-England were equally intolerant with respect to other denominations 
of Protestants. The latter hanged four Quakers, one of them a woman, on 
account of their religion. In England itself, frequent executions of Ana- 
baptists and other Protestants took place, from the reign of Edward VI. till 
that of Charles I. ; and other less sanguinary persecutions till the time 
of James II. j j, 

i LETTERS TO A PREBENDARY, &c. 



Letter XV. 



119 



i the Pope, agree together 1 If you run over all the articles, 
. from the first to the last, you will not find one which is not held 
j by some of them to be an article of faith, and rejected by others, 
as an impiety."* 

With these and numberless other historical facts of the same 
nature before his eyes, would it not, dear sir, I appeal to your 
> own good sense, be the extremity of folly for any one to lay the 
least claim to the mark of unity in favour of Protestants, or to 
pretend that they who are united in nothing but their hostility 
i towards the Catholic church, can form the one church we pro- 
fess to believe, in the creed ! Perhaps, however, you will say, 
that the mark of unity, which is wanting among the endless 
divisions of Protestants in general, may be found in the church 
to which you belong, the established church of England. I 
grant, dear sir, that your communion has better pretentions to 
this, and the other marks of the church, than any other Pro- 
testant society has. She is, as our controversial poet sings, 
;£ The least deformed because reformed the least."f You will 
recollect the account I have given, in a former letter,;): of the 
material changes which this church has undergone, at different 
times, since her first entire formation in the reign of the last 
Edward, and which place her at variance with herself. You 
will also remember the proofs I brought of Hoadlysim, in other 
words, of Socinianism, that damnable and cursed heresy, as this 
church termed it in her last synod,^ against some of her most 
illustrious bishops, archdeacons, and other dignitaries of modern 
times. These teach, in official charges to the clergy, in con- 
secration sermons, and in publications addressed to the throne, 
that the church herself is nothing more than a voluntary asso- 
ciation of certain people for the benefit of social worship ; that 
they themselves are in no other sense ministers of God than civil 
officers are ; that Christ has left us no exterior means of grace, 
and that, of course, baptism and the Lord's Supper (which are 
declared necessary for salvation in the Catechism) produce no 
spiritual effect at all ; in short, that all mysteries, and among 
'he rest those of the trinity and incarnation, (for denying which, 
the prelates of the church of England have sent so many Arians 
to the stake, in the reigns of Edward, Elizabeth, and James I.) 
are mere nonsense. || When I had occasion to expose this fatal 

• Epist. ad Capiton. inter. Epist. Bezae. 

t Dryden, Hind and Panther. t Letter viii. 

§ Constitutions and Canons, A. D. 1640. Sparrow's Collect, p. 355. 
II See extracts from the Sermons of Bishop Hoadley, Dr. Balguy, and Dr. 
Sturges, in Letters to a Prebendary, Let. viii. The most perspicuous and 



120 



Letter XV. 



system, (the professors of which Cranmer and Ridley would 

have sent, at once, to the stake,) I hoped it was of a local na- 
ture, and that defending, as 1 was in this point, the Articles and 
Liturgy of the established church as well as my own, I should, 
thus far, be supported by its dignitaries and other learned mem- 
bers : 1 found, however, the contrary to be generally the case,* 
and that the irreligious infection was infinitely more extensive 
than I apprehended. In fact, I found the most celebrated pro- 
fessors of divinity in the universities delivering Dr. Balguy's 
doctrine to the young clergy in their public lectures, and the 
most enlightened bishops publishing it in their pastorals and 
other works. 

Among these, the Norrisian professor of theology at Cam- 
bridge carries his deference to the archdeacon of Winchester 
so far, as to tell his scholars : " As I distrust my own conclu- 
sions more than his, (Dr. Balguy's,) if you judge that they are 
not reconcileable, I must exhort you to confide in him rather 
than me."f In fact, his ideas concerning the mysteries of Chris- 
tianity, particularly the trinity and our redemption by Christ, and 
indeed concerning most other theological points, perfectly agree 
with those of Dr. Balguy. He represents the difference be- 
tween the members of the established church and the Socinians 
to consist in nothing but " a few unmeaning words ;" and asserts, 
that " they need never be upon their guard against each other.,' J 
Speaking of the custom, as he calls it, " in the Scripture, of 
mentioning Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together, on the most 
solemn occasions, of which baptism is one," he says, " Did I 
pretend to understand what I sa\ , I might be a Tritheist or an 
Infidel, but I could not worship the one true God, and acknow- 
ledge Jesus Christ to be Lord of all."§ Another learned profes- 
sor of divinity, who is also a bishop of the established church, 
teaches his clergy " Not to esteem any particular opinion con- 
cerning the trinity, satisfaction, and original sin, necessary to 
salvation. "|| Accordingly, he equally absolves the Unitarian 
from impiety in refusing divine honour to our Blessed Saviour, 
and " the worshipper of Jesus," as he expresses himself, from 

nervous of these preachers, unquestionably, was Dr. Balguy. See his Dis- 
courses and Charges preached on public occasions, and dedicated to the 
king. Lockyer Davis, 1785. 

* That great ornament of the Episcopal bench, Dr. Horsley, bishop of 
St. Asaph's, does not fall under this censure ; as he protected the present 
writer, both in and out of parliament. 

t Lectures in Divinity, delivered in the university of Cambridge, by J. 
Hey, D. D. as Norrisian professor, in four volumes, 1797- Vol. ii. p. 104. 

X Vol. ii. p. 4) § Vol. ii. pp. 250, 251. 

H Dr. Watson, bishop of Landaff's Charge, 1795. 



Letter XV. 121 

' I idolatry in paying it to him, on the score of their common good 
' • intention* This sufficiently shows what the bishop's own be- 
S ' lief was concerning the adorable trinity, and the divinity of the 
i i second person of it. I have given, in a former letter, a remark- 
able passage from the above quoted charge, where bishop Wat- 
son, speaking of the doctrines of Christianity, says to his assem- 
' i bled clergy, *< I think it safer to tell you where they are contain- 

• ' ed than what they are. They are contained in the Bible ; and 
I 1 if, in reading that book, your sentiments should be different from 
5 1 those of your neighbour, or from those of the church, be persua- 
1 ded that infallibility appertains as little to you as it does to the 

church." I have elsewhere exposed the complete Socinianism 

• of bishop Hoadley and his scholars,! among whom we must 
f reckon bishop Shipley in the first rank. 

• ' Another celebrated writer, who was himself a dignitary of the 
8 1 establishment,^ arguing, as he does most powerfully, against the 
f consistency and efficacy of public confessions of faith, among 

• Protestants of every denomination, says, that out of a hundred 
1 ministers of the establishment, who, every year, subscribe the 
8 1 Articles made " to prevent diversity of opinions," he has reason 

• to believe " that above one-fifth of this number do not subscribe or 
^ 1 assent to these Articles in one uniform sense. He also quotes 
j a Right Rev. author who maintains that " No two thinking men 
t ever agreed exactly in their opinion, even with regard to any one 
f article of it."|| He also quotes the famous bishop Burnet, who 
j says, that "The requiring of subscription to the Thirty-nine Ar- 
I tides is a great imposition,^ and that the greater part of the cler- 
n gy subscribe the Articles, without ever examining them, and 

• others do it because they must do it, though they can hardly 
i satisfy their consciences about some things in them."** He 
I shows that the advocates for subscription, Doctors Nichols, Ben- 
i-l net, Waterland, and Stebbing, all vindicated it on opposite 

i grounds ; and he is forced to confess the same thing, with re- 

1 spect to the enemies of subscription, with whom he himself 
r, ranks. Dr. Clark pretends there is a salvo in the subscription, 
n namely, / assent to the articles in as much as they are agreeable to 

scripture ,ft though the judges of England have declared the con- 

• trary.|J Dr. Sykes alleges that the Articles were either pur- 
posely or negligently made equivocal.^ Another writer, whom he 

at • Collect of Theol. Tracts, Pref. p. 17. 

t Letters to a Prebendary, 
i, t Dr. Blackburn, archdeacon of Cleaveland, author of the Confessional. 

§ Confess. 3 Ed. p. 45. II Dr. Clayton, bishop ot Clogher. 

H Confers, p. 83. »* P. 91. It P. 222. « P 183. 

M P. 237. 



Letter XV. 



praises, undertakes to explain how " these Articles may be sub- 
scribed, and consequently believed, by a Sabellian, an orthodox 
Trinitarian, a Tritheist, and an Arian, so called." After this 
citation, Dr. Blackburn shrewdly adds : " One would wonder 
what idea this writer had of peace, when he supposed it might 
be kept by the act of subscription among men of these different 
judgments."* If you will look into Overton's True- Churchman 
Ascertained, you will meet with additional proofs of the repug- 
nance of many other dignitaries and distinguished churchmen 
to the articles of their own church, as well as of their disagree- 
ment in faith among themselves. Hence you will not wondei 
that, a numerous body of them should, some years ago, have 
petitioned the legislature to be relieved from the grievance, as 
they termed it, of subscribing these Articles ;f and that we 
should continually hear of the mutilation of the liturgy by so 
many of them, to avoid sanctioning those doctrines of their 
church, which they disbelieve and reject, particularly the Atha- 
nasian Creed and the absolution. J 

I might disclose a still wider departure from their original 
confessions of faith, and still more signal dissensions among the 
different dissenters, and particularly among the old stock of the 
Presbyterians and Independents, if this were necessary. Most 
of these, s#ys Dr. Jortin, are now Socinians, though we all know, 
they heretofore persecuted that sect with fire and sword. The 
renowned Dr. Priestly not only denied the divinity of Christ, 
but with horrid blasphemy, accused him of numerous errors, 
weaknesses, and faults and when the authority of Calvin, in 
burning Servetus, was objected to him, he answered, " Calvin 
was a great man, but, if a little man be placed on the shoulders 
of a giant, he will be enabled to see farther than the giant him- 
self." The doctrine now preached in the fashionable Unitarian 
chapels of the metropolis, I understand, greatly resembles that 
of the late Theophilanthropists of France, instituted by an Infidel, 
one of the five directors. 

The chief question, however, at present is, whether the church 
of England can lay any claim to the first character or mark of 
the true church, pointed out in our common creed, that of 
UNITY ? On this subject I have to observe, that in addition 

• P. 239. t Particularly in 1772. 

t The omission of the Athanasian Creed, in particular, so often took place 
in the public service, that an act of par J lament has just passed, among other 
things, to enforce the repetition of it. But if the clergyrr en alluded to re- 
ally believe that Christ is not God, what is the Legislature uoing in forcing 
them to worship him as God ? 

f Theolog. Reposit. vol. 4. 



Letter XVI. 



123 



to the dissensions among its members, already mentioned, there 
are whole societies, not communicating with the ostensible 
church of England, who make very strong and plausible pre- 
tensions to be, each of them, the real church of England. Such 
are the Non-jurors, who maintain the original doctrine of this 
church, contained in the Homilies concerning passive obedience 
and non-resistance, and who adhere to the first ritual of Ed- 
ward VI.* Such are the evangelical preachers and their dis- 
ciples, who insist upon it that pure Calvinism is the creed of 
the established church.f Finally, such are the Methodists, whom 
professor Hey describes as forming the old church of England.^ 
And, even now, it is notorious that many clergymen preach in 
the churches in the morning, and in the meeting houses in the 
evening ; while their opulent patrons are purchasing as many 
church-livings as they can, in order to fill them with incumbents 
of the same description. Tell me now, dear sir, whether, from 
this view of the state of the church of England, or from any 
other fair view which can be taken of jt, you will venture to 
ascribe to it that first mark of the true church, which you profess 
to belong to her, when, in the fact of heaven and earth, you 
solemnly declare, / believe in ONE Catholic Church ? Say, is 
there any single mark or principle of real unity in it ? I anti- 
cipate the answers your candour will give to these questions. 

I am, &c. J. M 

LETTER XVI. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
catholic unity. 

Dear Sir, 

We have now to see whether that first mark of the true church, 
which we confess in our creeds, but which we have found to be 
wanting to the Protestant societies, and even to the most osten- 
sible and orderly of them, the established church of England, 

* To this church belonged Ken, and the other six bishops, who were 
deposed at the revolution, Leslie, Collier, Hicks, Bret, and many other 
chief ornaments of the Church of England. 

+ It is clear from the Articles and Homilies, and still more from the 
persecution of the assertors of free-will in this country, that the church of 
England was Calvinistic till the end of the reign of James I. in the course 
of which he sent Episcopal representatives from England «rfd Scotland to 
the great Protestant Synod of Dort. These, in the name of their respective 
churches, signed that "the faithful who fall into atrocious crimes, do not 
forfeit justification, or incur damnation." 

t Vol. u p. 73. 



124 



Letter XVI. 



does or does not appear in that principal and primeval stock of 

Christianity, called the Catholic church. In case this church, 
spread, as it is, throughout the various nations of the earth, and 
subsisting, as it has done, through all ages, since that of 
Christ -and his apostles, should have maintained that religious 
unity, which the modern sects, confined to a single people, have 
been unable to preserve, you will allow that it must have been 
framed by a consummate Wisdom, and protected by an omnipo- 
tent Providence. 

Now, sir, I maintain it, as a notorious fact, that this original 
and great church is, and ever has been, strictly ONE in all the 
above-mentioned particulars, and first in her faith and terms of 
communion. The same creeds, namely, the Apostles' Creed, 
the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Creed of Pope 
Pius IV. drawn up in conformity with the definitions of the 
Council of Trent, are every where recited and professed, to the 
strict letter ; the same articles of faith and morality are taught 
in all our catechisms ;.the same rule of faith, namely, the re- 
vealed Word of God, contained in Scripture and tradition, and 
the same expositor and interpreter of this rule, the Catholic 
church speaking by the mouth of her pastors, are admitted and 
proclaimed by all Catholics throughout the four quarters of the 
globe, from Ireland to Chili, and from Canada to India. You 
may convince yourself of this any day, at the Royal Exchange, 
by conversing with intelligent Catholic merchants, from the seve- 
ral countries in question. You may satisfy yourself respecting 
it, even by interrogating the poor illiterate Irish, and other 
Catholic foreigners, who traverse the country in various direc- 
tions. Ask them their belief as to the fundamental articles of 
Christianity, the unity and trinity of God, the incarnation and 
death of Christ, his divinity, and atonement for sin by his pas- 
sion and death, the necessity of baptism, the nature of the bles- 
sed sacrament; question them on these and other such points, 
but with kindness, patience, and condescension, particularly with 
respect to their language and delivery, and, I will venture to say, 
you will not find any essential variation. in the answers of most 
of them ; and much less such as you will find by proposing the 
same questions to an equal number of Protestants, whether learn- 
ed or unlearned, of the self-same denomination. At all events, 
the Catholics, if properly interrogated, will confess their belief 
in one comprehensive article ; namely, this, / believe whatever 
the holy Catholic church believes and teaches. 

Protestant divines, at the present day, excuse their dissent 
from the Articles which they subscribe and swear to, by reasou 



Letter XVI. 



125 



of their alleged antiquity and obsoleteness,* though none of them 
are yet quite two centuries and a half old,f and they feel no 
difficulty in avowing that " a tacit reformation," since the first 
pretended reformation, has taken place among them.J This 
alone is a confession that their church is not one and the same ; 
whereas all Catholics believe as firmly in the doctrinal decisions 
of the council of Nice, passed fifteen hundred years ago, as they 
do in those of the council of Trent, confirmed in 1564, and 
other still more recent decisions ; because the Catholic church, 
like its divine Founder, is the same yesterday, to-day \ and for 
ever. Heb. xiii. 8. 

Nor is it in her doctrine only, that the Catholic church is one 
and the same ; she is also uniform in whatever is essential in 
her liturgy. In every part of the world, she offers up the same 
unbloody sacrifice of the holy mass, which is her chief act of 
divine worship ; she administers the same seven sacraments, 
provided by infinite wisdom and mercy for the several wants of 
the faithful ; the great festivals of our redemption are kept holy 
on the same days, and the apostolical fast of Lent is every where 
proclaimed and observed. In short, such is the unity of the 
Catholic church, that when Catholic priests or laymen, landing 
at one of the neighbouring ports, from India, Canada, or Brazil, 
come to my chapei,§ I find them capable of joining with me in 
every essential part of the divine service. 

Lastly, as a regular, uniform, ecclesiastical constitution and 
government, and a due subordination of its members, are requisite 
to constitute a uniform church, and to preserve unity of doctrine 
and liturgy in it, so these are undeniably evident in the Catholic 
church, and in her alone. She is, in the language of St. Cy- 
prian, " The habitation of peace and unity ,"|| and in that of the 
inspired text, like an army in battle array Spread, as the Ca- 
tholics are, over the face of the earth, according to my former 
observation, and disunited, as they are in every other respect, 
they form one uniform body in the order of religion. Whether 
roaming in the plains of Paraguay, or confined in the palaces of 
Pekin, each simple Catholic, in point of ecclesiastical economy, 
is subject to his pastor ; each pastor submits to his bishop, and 
each bishop acknowledges the supremacy of the successor of St. 
Peter, in matters of faith, morality, and spiritual jurisdiction. In 
case of error, or insubordination, which, from the frailty and 

* Dr. Hey's Lectures on Divinity, vol ii. pp. 49, 50, 51, &c. 
t The 39 Articles were drawn in 1562, and confirmed by the queen and 
the bishops in 1571. t Hey, p. 48. 

§ At Winchester, where the writer resided when this letter was written, 
t. Domicilium pacis et unitatis." St. Cyp. H Cant, vi- <i 

11* 



126 



Letter X VII. 



malice of the human heart, must, from time to time, disturb her, 

there are found canons and ecclesiastical tribunals, and judges, 
to correct and put an end to the evil, while similar evils in other 
rehg'ous societies are found to be interminable, 

i h ive said little or nothing of the varieties of Protestants in 
regard to their liturgies and ecclesiastical governments, because 
these matters being very indicate and obscure, as well as diver- 
sified, would lead me too far a-field for my present plan. It is 
sufficient to remark, that the numerous Protestant sects expressly 
disclaim any ^union with each other in these points. That a 
great proportion of them reject every species of liturgy and 
ecclesiastical government whatever, and that, in the church of 
England herself, very many of her dignitaries, and other distin- 
guished members, express their pointed disapprobation of certain 
parts of her liturgy, no less than of her Articles,* and that none 
of them appear to stand in awe of any authority, except that 
which is enforced by the civil power.. Upon a review of the 
whole matter of Protestant disunion and Catholic unity, I am 
forced to repeat with Tertullian, " It is the character of error to 
vary ; but when a tenet is found to be one and the same among 
a great variety of people, it is to be considered not as an error 
but as a divine tradition."! 

I am, dear sir, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XVII. 

From JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 

objections to the claim of exclusive salvation. 

Reverend Sir, 

I am too much taken up myself with the present subject of 
your letters, willingly to interrupt the continuation of them : but 

* Archdeacon Paley very naturally complains, that " the doctrine of the 
Articles of the church of England," which he so pointedly objects to, " are 
interwoven, with much industry, into her forms of Public worship." I 
have not met with a Protestant bishop, or other eminent divine, from arch- 
bishop Tillotson down to the present bishop of Lincoln, who approves alto- 
gether of the Athanasian Creed, which, however, is appointed to be said or 
sung on thirteen chief festivals in the year. 

t De Praescrip. contra Haer. The famous bishop Jewel, in excuse for 
the acknowledged variations of his own church, objects to Catholics that 
there are varieties in theirs ; namely, some of the friars are dressed in 
black, and some in white, and some in blue : that some of them live on 
meat, and some on fish, and some on herbs : they have also disputes in theii 
schools, as Dr. Porteus also remarks ; but they ooth omit to mention, thai 
these disputes are not about articles of faith. 



Letter XVII. 



127 



tome of the gentlemen, who frequent New Cottage, having com- 
municated your three last to a learned dignitary who is upon a 
visit in our neighbourhood, and he having made certain remarks 
upon them, I have been solicited by those gentlemen to forward 
them to you. The terms of our correspondence render an apology 
from me unnecessary, and still more the conviction that I believe 
you entertain of my being, with sincere respect and regard, 
Rev. Sir, &c. JAMES BROWN. 

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. N. N. Prebendary of N. to Mr. N. 

It is well known to many Roman Catholic gentlemen, with 
whom I have lived in habits of social intercourse, that I was al- 
ways a warm advocate for their emancipation, and that, so far from 
having any objections to their religion, I considered their hopes 
of future bliss as well founded as my own. In return, I thought 
I saw in them a corresponding liberality and charity. But these 
letters which you have sent me from the correspondent of your 
society at Winchester, have quite disgusted me with their bigotry 
and uncharitableness. In opposition to the Chrysostomes and 
Augustines, whom he quotes so copiously, for his doctrine of 
exclusive salvation, I will place a modern bishop of my church, 
no way inferior to them, Dr. Watson, who says, " Shall we 
never be freed from the narrow-minded contentions of bigots, and 
from the insults of men who know not what spirit they are of 
when they stint the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, 
and bar the doors of heaven against every sect but their own ? 
Shall we never learn to think more humbly of ourselves and 
less despicably of others ; to believe that the Father of the Uni- 
verse accommodates not his judgments to the wretched wrang- 
lings of pedantic theologues ; but that every one, who, with an 
honest intention, and to the best of his abilities, seeketh truth, 
whether he findeth it or not, and worketh righteousness, will be 
accepted of by him ?"* These, sir, are exactly my sentiments, 
as they were those of the illustrious Hoadley, in his celebrated 
sermon, which had the effect of stifling most of the remaining 
bigotry in the established church.t There is not any prayer 
which I more frequently or fervently repeat than that of the 

* Bishop Watson's Theolog. Tracts, Pref. p. 17. 

t Bishop Hoadley's Sermon on the Kingdom of Christ. This made the 
choice of religions a thing indifferent, and subjected the whole business of 
religion to the civil power. Hence sprung the famous Bangorian Contro- 
versy, which, when on the point of ending in a censure upon Hoadley from 
the Convocation, the latter was interdicted by ministry, and has nevet 
•ince, in the course of a hundred years, been allowed to meet again. 



138 



Letter X /III. 



liberal minded poet, who himself passed for a Roman Catholic, 
particularly the following stanza of it : 

" Let not this weak and erring hand 

Presume thy bolts to throw, 

And deal damnation round the land 

On each I judge thy foe."* 

I hope your society will require its Popish correspondent, be- 
fore he writes any more letters to it on other subjects, to answer 
what our prelate and his own poet have advanced against the 
bigotry and uncharitableness of excluding Christians of any de- 
nomination from the mercies of God and everlasting happiness. 
He may assign whatever marks he pleases of the true church, 
but I, for my part, shall ever consider charity as the only sure 
mark of this, conformably with what Christ says : By this shall 
all know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another 
John xiii. 35. 

LETTER XVIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. §c. 
objections answered. 

Dear Sir, 

In answer to the objections of the Reverend prebendary to 
my letters on the mark of unity in the true church, and the ne- 
cessity of being incorporated in this church, I must observe, in 
the first place, that nothing disgusts a reasoning divine more 
than vague charges of bigotry and intolerance, inasmuch as they 
have no distinct meaning, and are equally applied to all sects 
and individuals, by others, Whose religious opinions are more 
lax than their own. These odious accusations which your 
churchmen bring against Catholics, the Dissenters bring against 
you, who are equally loaded with them by Deists, as these are, 
in their turn, by Atheists and Materialists. Let us then, dear 
sir, in the serious discussions of religion, confine ourselves to 
language of a defined meaning, leaving vague and tinsel terms 
to poets and novelists. 

It seems, then, that bishop Watson, with the Rev. N. N. and 
other fashionable latitudinarians of the day, are indignant at the 
idea of " stinting the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, 
and barring the doors of heaven against any sect," however 
heterodox or impious. Nevertheless, in the very passage which 
1 have quoted, they themselves stint this mercy to those who 
" work righteousness," which implies a restraint on men's paa- 

* Pope's Universal Prayer. 



Letter XV11I. 



sions. Methinks I now hear some epicure Dives or elegant 
libertine retorting on these liberal, charitable, divines, in their 
own words, Pedantic theologues, narrow minded bigots, who stint 
the Omnipotent in the exercise of his mercy, and bar the doors of 
heaven against me, for following the impulse which he himself 
has planted in me ! The same language may, with equal justice, 
be put into the mouth of Nero, Judas Iscariot, and of the very 
demons themselves. Thus, in pretending to magnify God's 
mercy, these men would annihilate his justice, his sanctity, and 
his veracity ! Our business, then, is, not to form arbitrary 
theories concerning the divine attribute, but to attend to what 
he himself has revealed concerning them and the exercise of 
them What words can be more express than those of Christ, 
on this point, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved , 
but he that believeth not shall be damned ! Mark xvi. 16, or than 
those of St. Paul : Without faith it is impossible to please God, 
Heb. xi. 6. Conformably to this doctrine, the same apostle 
classes heresies with murder and adultery ; concerning which he 
says, they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of 
God, Gal. v. 20, 21. Accordingly, he orders that a man, whons 
a heretic, shall be rejected, Tit. iii. 10, and the apostle of charity, 
St. John, forbids the faithful to receive him into their houses ; or 
even to bid him God speed who bringeth not this doctrine of Christ, 
2 John i. 10. This apostle acted up to his rule, with respect to 
the treatment of persons out of the church, when he hastily 
withdrew from a public b'uilding, in which he met the heretic 
Cerinthus, " lest," as he said, " it should fall down upon him."* 
I have given, in a former letter, some of the numberless pas- 
sages in which the holy fathers speak home to the present point, 
and, as these are far more expressive and emphatical than what 
1 myself have said upon it, I presume they have chiefly contri- 
buted to excite the bile of the Rev. prebendary. However he 
may slight these venerable authorities, yet, as I am sure that 
you, sir, reverence them, I will add two more such quotations, 
on account of their peculiar appositeness to the present point, 
from the great doctor of the fifth century, St. Augustine. He 
says : " All the assemblies, or rather divisions, who call them- 
selves churches of Christ, but which, in fact, have separated 
themselves from the congregation of unity, do not belong to the 
true church. They might indeed belong to her, if the Holy 
Ghost could be divided against himself : but as this is impossible, 
they do not belong to her."t In like manner, addressing himself 

• S. Iren. I. iii. Euseb. Hist. \. iii. t Verb, Dom. Serm. \\. 



Letter XVIII. 



to certain sectaries of his time, he says : " If our communion 
is the church of Christ, yours is not so : for the church of Christ 
is one, whichsoever she is ; since it is said of her, My dove, my 
undefiled is one ; she is the only one of her mother." Cantic. vi. 9. 

But, setting aside Scripture and tradition, let us consider this 
matter, as bishop Watson and his associates effect to do, on the 
side of natural reason alone. These modern philosophers think 
it absurd to suppose that the Creator of the Universe concerns 
himself about what we poor mortals do or do not believe ; or, as 
the bishop expresses himself, that he " accommodates his judg- 
ments to the wrangling of pedantic theologues." With equal 
plausibility certain ancient philosophers have represented it as 
unworthy the Supreme Being to busy himself about the actions 
of such reptiles as we are in his sight ; and thus have opened a 
door to an unrestrained violation of his eternal and immutable 
laws ! In opposition to both these schools, I maintain, as the 
clear dictates of reason, that as God is the author, so he is neces- 
sarily the supreme Lord and Master of all beings, with their 
several powers and attributes, and therefore of those noble and 
distinguishing faculties of the human soul, reason and free will ; 
that he cannot divest himself of this supreme dominion, or render 
any being or any faculty independent of himself or of his high 
laws, any more than he can cease to be God ; that, of course, 
he does and must require our reason to believe in his divine 
revelations, no less than our will to submit to his supreme com- 
mands ; that he is just, no less than he is merciful, and there- 
fore that due atonement must be made to him for every act of 
disobedience to him, whether by disbelieving what he has said, 
or by disobeying what he has ordered. I advance a step further, 
in opposition to the Hoadley and Watson school, by asserting, 
as a self-evident truth, that there being a more deliberate and 
formal opposition to the Most High, in saying, / will not believe 
what thou hast revealed that in saying, / will not practice what 
thou hast commanded, so, ceteris paribus, WILFUL infidelity 
and heresy involve greater guilt than immoral frailty. 

You will observe, dear sir, that in the preceding passage, I 
have marked the word wilful ; because Catholic divines and the 
holy fathers, at the same time that they strictly insist on the 
necessity of adhering to the doctrine and communion of the Ca- 
tholic church, make an express exception in favour of what is 
termed invincible ignorance, which occurs, when persons out of 
the true church are sincerely and firmly resolved, in spite of all 
worldly allurements on one hand, and opposition to the contrary 
on the other, to enter into it if they could find it out, and when 



Letter XVIII 131 

they use their best endeavours for this purpose. This exception 
in favour of the invincibly ignorant, is made by the same St- 
Austin who so strictly insists on the general rule. His words 
are these : " The apostle has told us to reject a man that is a 
heretic : but those who defend a false opinion, without pertina- 
cious obstinacy, especially if they have not themselves invented 
it, but have derived it from their parents, and who seek the 
truth with anxious solicitude, being sincerely disposed to re- 
nounce their error as soon as they discover it, such persons are 
not to be deemed heretics."* Our great controvertist, Bellar- 
mine, asserts, that such Christians, " in virtue of the disposition 
of their hearts, belong to the Catholic church."f 

Who the individuals, exteriorly of other communions, but by 
the sincerity of their dispositions, belonging to the Catholic 
church, who, and in what numbers they are, it is for the Search- 
er of hearts, our future Judge, alone to determine : far be it 
from me, and from every other Catholic, to " deal damnation" 
on any person in particular : still thus much, on the grounds 
already stated, I am bound, not only in truth, but also in chari- 
ty, to say and to proclaim, that nothing short of the sincere dis- 
position in question, and the actual use of such means as Pro- 
vidence respectively affords for discovering the true church to 
those who are out of it, can secure their salvation ; to say no- 
thing of the Catholic sacraments and other helps for this pur- 
pose, of which such persons are necessarily deprived. 

1 just mentioned the virtue of charity ; and I must here add, 
that on no one point are latitudinarians and genuine Catholics 
more at variance than upon this. The former consider them- 
selves charitable, in proportion as they pretend to open the gate 
of heaven to a greater number of religionists of various descrip- 
tions : but, unfortunately, they are not possessed of the keys of 
that gate ; and when they fancy they have opened the gate as 
wide as possible, it still remains as narrow, and the way to it as 
strait, as our Saviour describes these to be in the Gospel, Matt. 
vii. 14. Thus they lull men into a fatal indifference about the 
truths of revelation, and a false security as to their salvation. 
Genuine Catholics, on the other hand, are persuaded, that as 
there is but one God. one faith, and one baptism, Ephes. iv. 5. so 
there is but ONE SHEEP-FOLD, namely, ONE CHURCH. 
Hence, they omit no opportunity of alarming their wandering 
brethren on the danger they are in, and of bringing them intc 
ibis, one fold of the one Shepherd, John x. 16. To form a right 
judgment in this case, we need but ask, Is it charitable or unchar* 



* Epi3t. ad Episc. Donat. 



Controv. torn. ii. lib. iii c. (j. 



132 



Letter XIX. 



itable in the physician, to warn his patient of his danger in eat- 
ing unwholesome food ? Again, is it charitable or uncharitable 
in the watchman who sees the sword coming to sound the trumpet 
of alarm ? Ezech. xxxiii. 6. 

'But to conclude, the Rev. prebendary, with most modern Pro- 
testants, may continue to assign his latitudinarianism, which ad- 
mits all religions to be right, thus dividing truth, that is essen- 
tially indivisible, as a mark of the truth of his sect ; in the mean- 
time, the Catholic church ever will maintain, as she ever has 
maintained, that there is only one faith and one true church, and 
that this her uncompromising firmness, in retaining and profes- 
sing this unity, is the first mark of her being this church. The 
subject admits of being illustrated by the well known judgment 
of the wisest of men. Two women dwelt together, each of 
whom had an infant son ; but, one of these dying, they both con- 
tended for possession of the living child, and carried their cause 
to the tribunal of Solomon. He, finding them equally conten- 
tious, ordered the infant they disputed about to be cut in two, 
and one-half of it to be given to each of them ; which order the 
pretended mother agreed to, exclaiming, Let it be neither mine nor 
thine, but divide it. Then spake the woman, whose the living 
child was, unto the king ; for her bowels yearned upon her son, and 
she said, O, my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay 
it. Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, 
and in no wise slay it; SHE IS THE MOTHER THERE- 
OF! 1 Kings iii. 26, 17. 

' I am, Dear Sir, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XIX. 
To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
on sanctity of doctrine. 

Dear Sir, 

The second mark by which you, as well as I, describe the 
church in which you believe, when you repeat the Apostles' 
Creed, is that of SANCTITY : we, each of us, say, / believe in 
the HOLY Catholic Church. Reason itself tells us, that the 
God of purity and sanctity could not institute a religion destitute 
of this character ; and the inspired apostle asures us, that Christ 
loved the church, and gave himself for it ; that he might santify 
and cleanse it, with the washing of water, by the Word ; that he 
might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or 
wrinkle. Ephes. v. 25. 27. The comparison which I am going 



Letter XIX. 



133 



to institute between the Catholic church and the leading Pro- 
testant societies in the article of sanctity, will be made on 
these four heads : 1st. The doctrine of holiness ; 2dly. The 
means of holiness ; 3dly. The fruits of holiness ; and, lastly, 
The divine testimony of holiness. 

To consider, first, the doctrine of the chief Protestant com- 
munions : this is well known to have been originally grounded 
in the pernicious and impious principles, that God is the author 
and necessitating cause, as well as the everlasting punisher, of 
sin } that man has no free will to avoid sin ; and that justifica- 
tion and salvation are the effects of an enthusiastic persuasion, 
under the name of faith, that the person is actually justified and 
saved, without any real belief in the revealed truths, without 
hope, charity, repentance for sin, benevolence to our fellow- 
creatures, loyalty to our king and country, or any other virtues, 
all which were censured by the first reformers, as they are by 
the strict Mothodists still, under the name of works, and by many 
of them declared to be even hurtful to salvation. It is asserted, 
in the Harmony of Confessions, a celebrated work, published in 
the early times of the Reformation, that " all the confessions of 
the Protestant churches teach this primary article (of justifica- 
tion) with a holy consent ;" which seems to imply, says arch- 
deacon Blackburn, " that this was the single article in which 
they all did agree."* Bishop Warburton expressly declares, 
that " Protestantism was built upon it. :"t and yet, " what im- 
piety can be more execrable," we may justly exclaim with Dr. 
Balguy " than to make God a tyrant !"$ And what lessons can 
be taught more immoral, than that men are not required to re- 
pent of their sins to obtain their forgiveness, nor to love either 
God or man to be sure of their salvation ! 

To begin with the father of the Reformation, Luther teaches 
that " God works the evil in us as well as the good," and that 
" the great perfection of faith consists in believing God to be 
just, although, by his own will, he necessarily renders us worthy 
of damnation, so as to seem, to take pleasure in the torments of the 
miser able. Again he says, and repeats it, in his work De Ser- 
vo Arbitrio, and his other works, that " free will is an empty 
name ;" adding, " If God foresaw that Judas would be a traitor, 
Judas necessarily became a traitor : nor was it in his power to be 
otherwise."|| " Man's will is like a horse : if God sit upo i it, 

* Archdeacon Blackburn's Confessional, p. 16. 

t Doctrine of Grace, cited by Overton, p. 31. t Discourses, p. 59 

§ Luth Opera, ed. Wittemb. torn, ii fol. 437. 
11 De Serv. Arbit fol. 4fi0. 



134 



Letter XIX, 



it goes as God would have it ; if the devil ride it, it goes as the 
devil would have it : nor can the will choose its rider, but each 
of them strives which shall get possession of it."* Conformably 
to this system of necessity he teaches, " Let this be your rule 
in interpreting the Scriptures ; whenever they command any 
good work, do you understand that they forbid it, because you 
cannot perform it."f " Unless faith be without the least good 
work, it does not justify: it is not faith. "J " See how rich a 
Christian is, since he cannot lose his soul, do what he will, un- 
less he refuses to believe : for no sin can damn him but unbe- 
lief."^ Luther's favourite disciple and bottle companion, Ams- 
dorf, whom he made bishop of Nauburg, wrote a book, expressly 
to prove that good works are not only unnecessary, but that they 
are hurtful to salvation ; for which doctrine he quotes his mas- 
ter's works at large. || Luther himself made so great account of 
this part of his system which denies free will, and the utility 
and possibility of good works, that, writing against Erasmus 
upon it, he affirms it to be the hinge on which the whole turns, 
declaring the questions about the Pope's supremacy, purgatory, 
and indulgencies, to be trifles, rather than subjects of controver- 
sy.^ In a former letter I quoted a remarkable passage from this 
patriarch of Protestantism, in which he pretends to prophesy 
that this article of his, shall subsist for ever, in spite of all the 
emperors, Popes, kings, and devils ; concluding thus : " If they 
attempt to weaken this article, may hell-fire be their reward ; 
let this be taken for an inspiration of the Holy Ghost, made to 
me, Martin Luther." 

However, in spite of these prophecies and curses of their 
father, the Lutherans in general, as I have before noticed, shock- 
ed at the impiety of this his primary principle, soon abandoned 
it, and even went over to the opposite impiety of Semi-pelagian- 
ism, which attributes to man the Jirst motion, or cause of con- 
version and sanctiflcation. Still it will always be true to say, 
that Lutheranism itself originated in the impious doctrine describ- 
ed above.** As to the second branch of the Reformation, Cal- 
vinism, where it has not sunk into Latitudinarianism or Socinian- 
ism,tt it is still distinguished by this impious system. To give 

• Ibid. torn. ii. t Ibid. torn. iii. fol. 171. t Ibid. torn. i. fol. 361. 

§ De Captiv. Babyl. torn. ii. fol. 74. 

II See Brierley's Protest. Apol. 393. See also Mosheim and Maclaino, 
Eccles. Hist. vol. pp. 324, 328. 

U See the passage, extracted from the work De Servo Arbitrio, in Letters 
to a Prebendary, Letter V. 

•* Bossuet's Variat. 1. viii. pp. 23, 54, &c. Mosheim and Maclaine, vol. 
V. p. 440, Sec t* Ibid, o 4. r vH 



Letter XIX, 



135 



a few passages from the works of this second patriarch of Pro- 
testants, Calvin says : " God requires nothing of us but faith ; 
he asks nothing of us, but that we believe."* " I do not hesitate 
to assert that the will of God makes all things necessary."! 
" It- is plainly wrong to seek for any other cause of damnation 
than the hidden counsels of God."{ " Men, by the free will 
of God, without any demerit of their own, are predestinated to 
eternal death."§ It is useless to cite the disciples of Calvin, 
Beza, Zanchius, &c. as they all stick close to the doctrine of 
their master, still I will give the following remarkable passage 
from the works of the renowned Beza : " Faith is peculiar to 
the elect, and consists in an absolute dependence each one has 
on the certainty of his election, which implies an assurance of 
his perseverance. Hence we have it in our power to know 
whether we be predestinated to salvation, not by fancy, but by 
conclusions as certain as if we had ascended into heaven to hear 
it from the mouth of God himself."|| And is there a man that, 
having being worked up by such dogmatizing, or by his own 
fancy, to this full assurance of indefeasible predestination and 
impeccability, who, under any violent temptation to break the 
laws of God or man, can be expected to resist it ! 

After all the pains which have been taken by modern divines 
of the church of England to clear her from this stain of Calvin- 
ism, nothing is more certain than that she was, at first, deeply 
infected with it. The 42 Articles of Edward VI. and the 39 
Articles of Elizabeth are evidently grounded in that doctrine,^! 
which, however, is more expressly inculcated in the Lambeth 
Articles,** approved of by the two archbishops, the bishop of Lon- 
don, &c. in 1595, " whose testimony," says the renowned Ful- 
ler, " is an infallible evidence, what was the general and receiv- 
ed doctrine of the church of England in that age about the fore- 
named controversies."ff In the History of the University of 
Cambridge, by this author, a strict churchman, we have evident 
proof that no other doctrine but that of Calvin was so much as 
tolerated by the established church, at- the time I have been 
speaking of. " One W. Barret, fellow of Gonvile and Caius 

* Calv. in Joan. vi. Rom. i. Galat. ii. 1 Instit 1. iii. c. 23. 

X Ibid. § Ibid. II Exposit. cited by Bossuet, Variat. 1. xiv. pp. 6. 7. 

T Particularly the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 17th of the 39 Articles. By the 
tenor of the 13th, among the 39, it would appear, that the patience of So- 
crates, the integrity of Aristides, the continence of Scipio, and the patriot- 
ism of Cato " had the nature of sin," because they were " works done 
before the grace of Christ." - ** Fuller's Church History, p. 230. 

ft Fuller, p. 232. — N. B. On the point in question, Dr. Hey, \o'. iv p. 
fi, quotes the well known speech of the ^reat lord Chatham in parliament : 
** Vie have a Calvinistic croed, and an Anninian clergy." 



136 



Letter XIX. 



college, preached ad Clerum for his degree of bachelor of divin- 
ity, wherein he vented such doctrines, for which he was sum- 
moned, six days after, before the consistory of doctors, and there 
enjoined the following retraction : — 1st, / said that, no man is 
so strongly underpropped by the certainty of faith, as to be assured 
of his salvation : but, now, I protest, before God, that they which 
are justified by faith, are assured of their salvation with the cer- 
tainty of faith. 3dly, I said that, certainty concerning the time 
to come is proud : but now I protest that justified faith can never 
be rooted out of the minds of the faithful. 6thly, These words 
escaped me in my sermon : / believe against Calvin, Peter Mar- 
tyr, <5fc. that sin is the true, proper, and first cause of reprobation. 
But, now, being better instructed, I say that the reprobation of 
the wicked is from everlasting ; and I am of the sume mind con- 
cerning election, as the church of England teacheth in the Arti- 
cles of faith. Last of all, I uttered these words rashly againsi 
Calvin, a man that hath very well deserved of the church of God - 
that he durst presume to lift himself above the High God : by 
which words 1 have done great injury to that learned and right- 
godly man. I have also uttered many bitter words against Peter 
Martyr, Theodore Beza, &c being the lights and ornaments oj 
our church, calling them by the odious name of Calvinists, &c."* 
Another proof of the former intolerance of the church of Eng- 
land, with respect to that moderate system, which all her pre- 
sent dignitaries hold, is the order drawn up by the archbishops 
and bishops in 1566, for government to act upon, namely, that 
" All incorrigible free will men, &c. should be sent into some 
castle into North Wales, or at Walingford, there to live of theii 
own labour, and no one to be suffered to resort to them, but theii 
keepers, until they be found to repent their errors. "f A still 
stronger, as well as more authentic evidence of the former Cal- 
vinism of the English church is furnished by the history and 
acts of the general Calvinistic Synod of Dort, held against Vor- 
stius, the successor of Arminius, who had endeavoured to mod- 
ify that impious system. Our James 1. who had the principal 
share in assembling this Synod, was so indignant at the attempt, 
that in a letter to the States of Holland, he termed Vorstius, 
" the enemy of God," and insisted on his being expelled, declar- 
ing, at the same time, that " it was his own duty, in qual ty of 
defender of the faith, with which title," he said. " God had hon- 
oured him, to extirpate those cursed heresies, and to drive them 

• Fuller's Hist, of Univ. of Camb. p 150. — N. B. It will be evident to the 
reader, that 1 have greatly abridged this curious recantation, which w :s too 
long to be quoted at length. t Strype's Annals of Reform, vol i p 214. 



Letter XIX. 



137 



to hell !"* To be brief, he sent Carlton and Davenport, the 
former being bishop of Landaff, the latter of Salisbury, with two 
other dignitaries of the church of England, and Bancanqual, on 
the part of the church of Scotland, to the Synod, where they 
appeared among the foremost in condemning the Arminians, and 
hi defining that " God gives true and lively faith to those whom 
he resolves to withdraw from the common damnation, and to 
them alone ; and that the true faithful, by atrocious crimes, do not 
forfeit the grace of adoption and the state of justification /"t 

It might have been expected that the decrees of this Synod 
would have greatly strengthened the system of Calvinism ; where- 
as it is from the termination of it, which corresponds with the 
concluding part of the reign of James I. that we are to date the 
decline of it, especially in England. \. Still greater numbers of 
its adherents, under the name of Calvinists, and professing, not 
without reason, to maintain the original tenets of the church of 
I England, subsist in this country, and their ministers arrogate to 
themselves the title of Evangelical Preachers. In like manner 
the numerous and diversified societies of Methodists, whether 
Wesleyans or Whitfieldites, Moravians or Revivalists, New 
Itinerants or Jumpers,^ are all partisans of the impious and im- 
moral system of Calvin. The founder of the first mentioned 
branch of these sectaries witnessed the follies and crimes which 
flowed from it, and tried to reform them by means of a laboured 
but groundless distinction.! 

After all, the first and most sacred branch of holy doctrine 
consists in those articles which God has been pleased to reveal 
concerning his own divine nature and operations, namely, the 
articles of the unity and trinity of the Deity, and of the incarna- 
tion, death, and atonement of the consubstantial Son of God. It 
is admitted, that these mysteries have been abandoned by the 
I Protestants of Geneva, Holland, and Germany. With respect 
to Scotland, a well informed writer says : " It is certain that 
Scotland, like Geneva, has run from high Calvinism to almost 
I as high Arianism or Socinianism : the exceptions, especially in 
, the cities, are few." It will be gathered from many passages, 
which I have cited in my former letters, how widely extended 
. throughout the established church is that " tacit reform," which 
f a learned professor of its theology signifies to be the same thing 
. with Socinianism. A judgment, may also be forrr, id of the pre- 

* Hist. Abreg. de Gerard Brandt, torn. i. p. 417. torn u. p. 2. 
e t Bossuet's Variat. vol. ii. pp. 291, 294, 304. 
t Moshiem and Maclaine, vol. v. pp. '360, 389. 

S See Evan's Sketch of all Religions. II Postcnpt, p. 56. 

12* 



138 



Letter XIX. 



valence of this system, by the act of July 21, 1813, exempting 

the professors of it from the penalties to which they were before 
subject. And yet this system, as I have before observed, is 
pronounced by the church of England, in her last made canons, 
" damnable and cursed heresy, being a complication of many 
former heresies and contrariant to the, articles of religion now 
established in the church of England."* I say nothing of the 
numerous Protestant victims, who have been burnt at the stake 
in this country, during the reigns of Edward VI. Elizabeth, and 
James 1. for the errors in question, except to censure the incon- 
sistency and cruelty of the proceeding : all that I had occasion 
to show was, that most Protestants, and, among the rest, those 
of the English church, instead of uniformly maintaining at all 
times the same holy doctrine, heretofore abetted an impious and 
immoral system, namely, Calvinism, which they have since been 
constrained to reject, and that they have now compromised with 
impieties, which formerly they condemned as " damnable here- 
sies," and punished with fire and faggot. 

But it is time to speak of the doctrine of the Catholic church. 
If this was once holy, namely, in the apostolic age, it is koly 
still ; because the church never changes her doctrine, nor suf- 
fers any persons in her communion to change it, or to question 
any part of it. Hence, the adorable mysteries of the trinity, 
the incarnation, &c. taught by Christ and his apostles, and de- 
fined by the four first general councils, are now as firmly be- 
lieved by every real Catholic, throughout her whole communion, 
as they were when those councils were held. Concerning the 
article of man's justification, so far from holding the impious 
and absurd doctrines imputed to her by her unnatural children, 
(who sought for a pretext to desert her,) she rejects, she con- 
demns, she anathematizes them ! It is then false, and notorious- 
ly false, that Catholics believe, or in any age did believe, that 
they could justify themselves by their own proper merits ; or 
that they can do the least good, in the order of salvation, with- 
out the grace of God, merited for them by Jesus Christ ; or that 
we can deserve this grace, by any thing we have the power of 
doing ; or that leave to commit sin, or even the pardor of any 
sin, which has been committed, can be purchased of an} person 
whomsoever ; or that the essence of religion and our hopes of 
salvation consist in forms and ceremonies, or in other exterior 
things. These, and such other calumnies, or rather blasphemies, 
however frequently or confidently repeated in popular sermons 
and controversial tracts, there is reason to think are not renlly 



• Constit. and Can. A. D. 1640. 



Letter XIX. 



139 



believed by any Protestant of learning.* In fact, what ground 
is there for maintaining them 1 Have they been denned by oui 
councils ? No : they have been condemned by them, and par- 
ticularly by that of Trent. Are they taught in our catechisms, 
such as the Catechismus ad Parochos, the General Catechism of 
Ireland, the Douay Catechism ; or in our books of devotion, for 
example, those written by an a Kempis, a Sales, a Granada, 
and a Challoner 1 No : the contrary doctrine is, in these, and 
in our other books, uniformly maintained. In a word, the Ca- 
tholic church teaches, and ever has taught, her children to trust 
for mercy, grace and salvation, to the merits of Jesus Christ ; 
nevertheless she asserts that we have free will, and that this 
being prevented by divine grace, can and must co-operate to 
our justification by faith, sorrow for our sins, and other corres- 
ponding acts of virtue, which God will not fail to bestow upon 
us, if we do not throw obstacles in the way of them. Thus is 
all honour and merit ascribed to the Creator, and every defect 
and sin attributed to the creature. The Catholic church incul- 
cates moreover, the indispensable necessity of humility as a vir- 
tue, by which, says St. Bernard, " from a thorough knowledge of 
ourselves we become little in our own estimation," as the ground- 
work of all other virtues. I mention this Catholic lesson, in 
particular, because however strongly it is enforced by Christ 
and his disciples, it seems to be quite overlooked by Protestants, 

, insomuch that they are perpetually boasting in their speeches 
and writings of the opposite vice, pride. In like manner, it 
appears from the above mentioned catechisms and spiritual 
works, what pains our church bestows in regulating the interior 
no less than the exterior of her children, by repressing every 
thought or idea, contrary to religion or morality ; of which matter, 

. I perceive little or no notice is taken in the catechisms and 
tracts of Protestants. Finally, the Catholic church insists upon 
the necessity of being perfect even as our heavenly Father is 
perfect, Mat. v. 48, by such an entire subjugation of our passions 
and conformity of our will with that of God, that our conversa- 
tion may be in heaven, while we are yet living here on earth. 
Philip v. 20. I am, &c. J. M. 

* The Norrisian Professor, Dr. Hey, says : " The reformed have depart- 
ed so much from the rigour of their doctrine about faith, and the Romanists 
from theirs about good works, that there seems very little difference be- 
tween them." Lect. vol. iii. p. 262. True, most of the reformers, after 
building their religion on faith alone, have now gone into the opposite here- 
; sy of Pelagiariism, or at least Semi-Pelagianism : but Catholics hold 
exactly the same tenets regarding good works, which they ever held, and 
which were always very different from what Dr. Hey describes them tc 
have been. Vol. iii. p 361. 



140 



POSTSCRIPT TO LETTER XIX. 

[The Lire of the late Rev. John Wesley, founder of the Me- 
tuodists, which has been written by Dr. Whitehead, Dr. Coke, 
and others of his disciples, shows, in the clearest light, the er- 
rors and contradictions to which even a sincere and religious 
mind is subject, that is destitute of the clue to revealed truth, 
the living authority of the Catholic church, as also the impiety 
and immorality of Calvanism. At first, that is to say, in the 
year 1729, Wesley was a modern church of England man, dis- 
tinguished from other students at Oxford by nothing but a more 
strict and methodical form of life. Of course his doctrine then 
was the prevailing doctrine of that church ; this he preached in 
England and carried with him to America, whither he sailed to 
corvert the Indians. Returning, however, to England in 1738, 
he writes as follows : " For many years I have been tossed 
about, by various winds of doctrine," the particulars of which, 
and of the different schemes of salvation, which he was inclined 
to trust in, he details. Falling, at last, however, into the hands 
of Peter Bohler and his Moravian brethren, who met in Fetter- 
lane, he became a warm proselyte to their system, declaring at 
the same time, with respect to his past religion, that hitherto he 
had been a Papist without knowing it. We may judge of his 
ardour by his exclamation when Peter Bohler left England : 
" O what a work hath God begun since his (Bohler's) coming 
to England ; such a one as shall never come to an end till hea- 
ven and earth shall pass away." To cement his union with this 
society, and to instruct himself more fully in its mysteries, he 
made a journey t Hernhuth in Moravia, which is the chief seat 
of the United Brethren. It was whilst he was a Moravian, 
namely, " on the 24th of May, 1738, a quarter of an hour be- 
fore nine in the evening," that John Wesley, by his own ac- 
count, was " saved from the law of sin and death." This all 
important event happened " at a meeting house, in Aldergate- 
street, while a person was reading Luther's Preface to the 
Galatians." Nevertheless, though he had professed such deep 
obligations to the Moravians, he soon found out and declared 
that theirs was not the right way to heaven. In fact he found 
them, and " nine parts in ten of the Methodists" who adhered 
to them, " swallowed up in the dead sea of stillness, opposing 
the ordinances, namely, prayer, reading the Scripture, frequent- 
ing the sacrament and public worship, selling their Bibles, &c. 
in order to rely more fully ' on the blood of the Lamb.' " In 
short, Wesley abandoned the Moravian connexion, and set up 



Letter XIX. 141 

that which is properly his own religion, as it is detailed by 

Nightingale, in his Portrait of Methodism. This happened in 
1740, soon after which he broke off from his rival Whitfield : 
in fact they maintained quite opposite doctrines on several es- 
. sential points : still the tenet of instantaneous justification, with- 
! out repentance, charity, or other good works, and the actual 
I feeling and certainty of this and of everlasting happiness, con- 
s' tinued to be the essential and vital principles of Wesley's sys- 
i tern, as they are of the Calvinistic sects in general ; till having 
, witnessed the horrible impieties and crimes to which it conduct- 
L ed, he, at a conference or synod of his preachers, in 1744, de- 
L ciared that he and they had" leaned too much to Calvinism and 
i Antinomianism." In answer to the question " What is Antino- 
i mianism ?" Wesley, in the same conference, answers, " The 
doctrine which makes void the law through faith. Its main 
j pillars are that Christ abolished the moral law ; that, therefore, 
Christians are not obliged to keep it ; that Christian liberty, is 
liberty from obeying *the commands of God ; that it is bondage 
i to do a thing because it is commanded, or forbear it because it 
. is forbidden : that a believer is not obliged to use the ordinances 
; of God, or to do good works, that a preacher ought not to exhort 
» to good works," &c. See here the essential morality of the 
j religion which "Wesley had hitherto followed and preached, as 
: drawn by his own pen, and which still continues to be preached 
t by the other sects of Methodists ! We shall hereafter see in 
, what manner he changed it. The very mention, however, of a 
i change in this ground-work of Methodism, inflamed all the Me- 
. thodist connexions : accordingly, the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shir- 
j ley, chaplain to lady Huntingdon, in a circular letter, written at 
, her desire, declared against the dreadful heresy of Wesley, which, 
, as he expressed himself, " injured the foundation of Christianity." 
. He, therefore, summoned another conference, which severely 
| censured Wesley. On the other hand, this patriarch was 
strongly supported, and particularly by Fletcher of Madeley, an 
i able writer, whom he had destined to succeed him, as the head 
i of his connexion. Instead of being offended at his master's 
change, Fletcher says, " I admire the candour of an old man of 
God, who, instead of obstinately maintaining an old mistake, 
comes do,wn like a little child, and acknowledges it before his 
preachers, whom it is his interest to secure." The same Fletch- 
er published seven volumes of Checks to Antinomianism, in 
vindication of Wesley's change in this essential point of his 
religion. In these he brings the most convincing proofs and ex- 
amples of the impiety and immorality, to which the enthusiasm 



142 



Letter XIX. 



of Antinomian Calvinism had conducted the Methodists. He 
mentions a highwayman, lately executed in his neighbourhood, 
who vindicated his crimes upon this principle. He mentions 
other more odious instances of wickedness, which, to his knowl- 
edge, had flowed from it. All these, he says, are represented 
by their preachers to be " damning sins in Turks and Pagans, 
but only spots in God's children." He adds, "There are few 
of our celebrated pulpits, where more has not been said for sin 
than against it /" He quotes an Hon. M. P. " once my brother," 
he says, " but now my opponent," who, in his published treatise, 
maintains that " murder and adultery do not hurt the pleasant 
children, (the elected,) but even work for their good :" adding, 
" My sins may displease God, my person is always acceptable 
to him. Though I should outsin Manasses himself, I should not 
be less a pleasant child, because God always views me in Christ. 
Hence, in the midst of adulteries, murders and incests, he can 
address me with, Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled ; there 
is not a spot in thee. It is a most pernicious error of the school- 
men to distinguish sins according to the fact, not according to 
the person. Though I highly blame those who say, let us sin 
that grace may abound ; yet adultery, incets and murder, shall, 
upon the whole, make meliollier on earth and merrier in heaven !" 
It only remains to show in what manner Wesley purified his 
religious system, as he thought, from the defilment of Antinomi- 
anism. To be brief, he invented a two-fold mode of justification, 
one without repentance, the love of God, or other works ; the 
other, to which those works were essential : the former was for 
those who die soon after their pretended experience of saving 
faith, the latter for those who have time and opportunity of per- 
forming them. Thus, to say no more of the system, according 
to it a Nero and a Robespierre might have been established in 
the grace of God, and in a right to the realms of infinite purity 
without one act of sorrow for their enormities, or so much as an 
act of their belief in God !] 

LETTER XX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq, 
on the means of sanctity. 

Dear Sir, 

The efficient cause of justification, or sanctity, according to the 
Council of Trent,* is the mercy of God through the merits of 



* Sess. vi cap. 7. 



Letter XX. 



143 



Jesus Christ ; still, in the usual economy of his grace, he makes 
use of certain instruments or means, both for conferring and in- 
creasing it. The principal and most efficacious of these are 
THE SACRAMENTS. Fortunately, the established church 
agrees in the main sense with the Catholic and other Christian 
churches, when she defines a sacrament to be " an outward and 
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace, given unto us, and 
ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the 
same, and a pledge to assure us thereof."* But, though she 
agrees with other Protestant communions in reducing the num- 
ber of these to two, baptism and the Lord's Supper, she differs 
with all others, namely, the Catholic, the Greek, the Russian, 
the Armenian, the Nestorian, the Eutychian, the Coptic, the 
Ethiopian, &c. all of which firmly maintain, and ever have main- 
tained, as well since as before their respective defections from 
us, the whole collection of the seven sacraments .f This fact 
alone refutes the airy speculations of Protestants concerning the 
origin of the five sacraments, which they reject, and thus demon- 
strates that they are deprived of as many divinely instituted in- 
struments or means of sanctity. As these seven channels of 
grace, though all supplied from the same fountain of Christ's 
merits, supply, each of them, a separate grace, adapted to the 
different wants of the faithful, and as each of them furnishes 
matter of observation for the present discussion, so I shall take a 
cursory view of them. 

The first sacrament, in point of order and necessity, is bap- 
tism. In fact, no authority can be more express than that of the 
Scripture, as to this necessity. Except a man be born of water 
and of the spirit, says Christ, he cannot enter into the kingdom of 
God- John iii. 5. Repent, cries St. Peter, and be baptized every 
one of you, in the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins. Acts 
ii. 38. Arise, answered Ananias to St. Paul, and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins. Acts xxii. 16. This necessity was 
heretofore acknowledged by the church of England, at least, as 
appears from her Articles, and still more clearly from her lit- 
urgy ,J and the works of her eminent divines. § Hence, as bap- 

* Catechism in Com. Prayer. — N. B. The last clause in this definition 
& far too strong, as it seems to imply, that every person who is partaker of 
the outward part of a sacrament, necessarily receives the grace of it, what- 
ever may be his dispositions ; an impiety which the bishop of Lincoln 
calumniously attributes to the Catholics. Elements ot Theoh vol. ii. p. 436. 

t This important fact is incontrovertibly proved, in the celebrated work 
La Perpetuite" de la Foi, from original documents, procured by Louis XIV. 
and preserved in the king's library at Paris. 

X Common Prayer. 

I Se«B. Pearson on the Creed. Art. x. Hooker, Eccl. Polit. B. v. p. GO 



144 Letter XX. 

tism is valid, by whomsoever it is conferred, the English church 
may be said to have been upon an equal footing with the Cath- 
olic church, as much as concerns this instrument or means of 
holiness : but the case is different now, since that tacit reforma- 
tion, which is acknowledged to have taken place in her. This 
has nearly swept out of her both the belief of original sin, and 
of its necessary remedy, baptism. " That we are born guilty," 
the great authority, Dr. Balguy, says, " is either unintelligible 
or impossible." Accordingly,, he teaches, that " the rite of bap- 
tism is no more than a representation of our entrance into the 
church of Christ." Elsewhere, he says, " The sign (of a sacra- 
ment) is declaratory, not efficient"* Dr. Hey says, the negli- 
gence of the parent, with respect to procuring baptism, 14 may 
affect the child : to say it will affect him, is to run into the error 
I am condemning."! Even the bishop of Lincoln calls it " an 
unauthorized principle of Papists, that no person whatsoever can 
be saved who has not been baptized. "J Where the doctrine of 
baptism is so lax, we may be sure the practice of it will not be 
more strict ; accordingly, we have abundaut proofs that, from 
the frequent and long delays, respecting the administration of 
this sacrament, which occur in the establishment, very many 
children die without receiving it ; and that, from the negligence 
of ministers, as to the right matter and form of words, many 
more children receive it invalidly. Look, on the other hand, at 
the Catholic church : you will find the same importance still 
attached to this sacred rite, on the part of the people and the 
clergy, which is observable in the Acts of the apostles and in 
the writings of the holy fathers ; the former being ever impa- 
tient to have their children baptized, the latter equally solicitous 
to administer it in due time, and with the most scrupulous exact- 
ness. Thus, as matters stand now, the two churches are not 
upon a level with respect to this first and common means of 
sanctification : the members of one have a much greater moral 
certainty of the remission of that sin in which we were all born, 
and of their having been heretofore actually received into the 
church of Christ, than the members of the others have. It would 
be too tedious a task to treat of the tenets of other Protestants 
on this and the corresponding matters. Let it suffice to say, 

* Charge vii. pp. 2R8, 300. t Lectures in Divinity, vol. iii. p. 182. 

t Vol. ii. p. 470. The learned prelate can hardly be supposed ignorant 
th it many of our martyrs, recorded in our Martyrology and our Breviary, 
arc expressly declared not to have been actually baptized ; or that our 
divines unanimously teach, that not only the baptism of blood by martyr- 
dom, but also a sincere desire of being baptized, suffices, where the means 
of baptism are wanting:. 



Letter XX. 145 

that the famous Synod of Dort, representing all the Calvinistic 
states of Europe, formerly decided that the children of the elect 
are included in the covenant made with their parents, and thus 
are exempt from the necessity of baptism, as likewise of faith 
and morality ; being thus ensured, themselves and all their pos- 
terity, till the end of time, of their justification and salvation !* 
Concerning the second channel of grace or means of sanctity, 

i confirmation, there is no question. The church of England, 
which, among the different Protestant societies, alone, I believe, 

| lays claim to any part of this rite, under the title of the ceremony 
of laying on of hands, expressly teaches, at the same time, that 
it is no sacrament, as not being ordained by God, or an effectual 
sign of grace.\ But the Catholic church, instructed by the soli- 
citude of the apostles to strengthen the faith of those her children 
who had received it in baptism,J and by the lessons of Christ 
himself, concerning the importance of receiving that holy spirit, 
which is communicated in this sacrament,^ religiously retains 
and faithfully administers it to them, for the self-same purpose, 
through all ages. In a word, those who are true Christians, by 
virtue of baptism, are not made perfect Christians, except by 
virtue of the sacrament of confirmation, which none of the Pro- 
testant societies so much as lays a claim to. 

Of the third sacrament, indeed, the Lord's Supper, as they 
call it, the Protestant societies, and particularly the church of 
England, in her Prayer Book, say great things : nevertheless, 
what is it, after all, upon her own showing ? Mere bread and 

I wine, received in memory of Christ's passion and death, in order 
to excite the receiver's faith in him : that is to say, it is a bare 

' type or memorial of Christ. Any thing may be instituted to be 

' the type or memorial of another thing ; but certainly the Jews, 

I I in their paschal lamb, had a more lively figure of the death of 
' Christ, and so have Christians in each of the four evangelists, 
' ,han eating bread and drinking wine can be. Hence, I infer 
• that the communion of Protestants, according to their belief and 
e practice in this country, cannot be more than a feeble excitement 
1 to their devotion, and an inefficient help to their sanctification. 
5 But if Christ is to be believed upon his own solemn declaration, 

where he says, Take ye and eat ; this is my body .-—drink ye all 
of this ; for this is my blood, Matt. xxvi. 26. — My flesh is meat 
I indeed, and my blood is drink indeed, John vi. 56. Then the 
holy communion of Catholics is, beyond all expression and all 
conception, not only the most powerful stimulative to our faith, 

* Bossuet, Variat. Book xiv. p. 46. t Art. xxv. 

t Acts viii 14.— xix. 2. § John xvi. 

13 



146 



Letter XX. 



our hope, our love, and our contrition ; but also the most effica- 
cious means of obtaining these and all other graces from the di- 
vine bounty. Those Catholics who frequent this sacrament with 
the suitable dispositions, are the best judges of the truth ol 
what 1 here say : nevertheless, many Protestants have been 
converted to the Catholic church, from the ardent desire they 
felt of receiving their Saviour Christ himself into their bosoms, 
instead of a bare memorial of him, and from a just conviction of 
the spiritual benefits they would derive from this intimate union 
with him. 

The four remaining instruments of grace, penance, extreme 
unction, order, and matrimony, Protestants, in general, give up 
to us, no less than confirmation. The bishop of Lincoln,* Dr. 
Hey,f and other controvertists, pretend that it was Peter Lom- 
bard, in the 12th century, who made sacraments of them. 
True it is, that this industrious theologian collected together the 
different passages of the fathers, and arranged them, with pro- 
per definitions of each subject, in their present scholastic order, 
not only respecting the sacraments, but likewise the other 
branches of divinity, on which account he is called the master 
of the sentences ; bi'.i this writer could as soon have introdu- 
ced Mahometanism into the church as the belief of any one sa- 
crament which it had not before received as such. Besides, 
supposing him to have deceived the Latin church into this be- 
lief, I ask by what means were the schismatical Greek church- 
es fascinated into it 1 In short, though these holy rites had not 
been endued by Christ with a sacramental grace, yet, practised 
as they are in the Catholic church, they would still be great 
helps to piety and Christian morality. 

What I have just asserted concerning these five sacraments, 
in general, is particularly true, with respect to the sacrament 
of penance. For what does this consist of ? and what is the pre- 
paration for it, as set forth by all our councils, catechisms, and 
prayer books ? There must first be fervent prayer to God for 
his light and strength ; next an impartial examination of the 
conscience, to acquire that most important of all sciences, the 
knowledge of ourselves ; then true sorrow for our sins, with a 
firm purpose of amendment, which is the most essential part of 
the sacrament. After this there must be a sincere exposure of 
the state of the interior to a confidential, and at the same time, 
a learned, experienced, and disinterested director. If he could 
afford no other benefit to his penitents, yet how inestimable are 
those of his making known to them many defects and many du 



* Elem. vol. ii. p. 414 



t Lect vol. iv. p. 199. 



Letter XX. 



14? 



tiea, which their self-love had probably overlooked, of his pre* 
scribing to them the proper remedies for their spiritual mala- 
dies, and of his requiring them to make restitution for every 
injury done to each injured neighbour ! But we are well as- 
sured that these are far from being the only benefits which the 
minister of this sacrament can confer upon the subject of it : 
for it was not an empty compliment which Christ paid to his 
apostles, when, Breathing on them, he said to them : Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost, whose si?is you shall remit, they are remitted^ 
and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. John xx. 22, 
23. O sweet balm of the wounded spirit ! O sovereign restora- 
tive of the soul's life and vigour! best known to those who 
faithfully use thee, and not unattested by those who neglect and 
blaspheme thee !* 

It might appear strange, if we were not accustomed to similar 
inconsistencies, that those who profess to make Scripture, in its 
plain obvious sense, the sole rule of their faith and practice, 
should deny extreme unction to be a sacrament, the external 
sign of which, anointing the sick, and the spiritual effect of 
which, the forgiveness of sins, are so expressly declared by St. 
James, in his Epistle v. 14. Martin Luther, indeed, who had 
taken offence at this Epistle, for its insisting so strongly on 
good works,t rejected the authority of this Epistle, alleging that 
it was '* not lawful for an apostle to institute a sacrament. "| 
But, I trust, that you, dear 'sir, and your conscientious society, 
will agree with me, that it is more incredible that an apostle of 
Chiist should be ignorant of what he was authorized by him to 
say and do, than that a profligate German friar should be guilty 
of blasphemy. Indeed, the church of England, in the first form 
of her Common Prayer in Edward's reign, enjoined the unction 
of the sick, as well as the prayer for them.§ It was evidently 
well worthy the mercy and bounty of our divine Saviour, to 

I institute a special sacrament for purifying and strengthening us 
at the time of our greatest need and terror. Owing to the insti- 
tution of this, and the two other sacraments, penance and the 
real body and blood of our Lord, it is a fact, that few, very few 
Catholics die without the assistance of their clergy ; which 
assistance the latter are bound to afford, at the expense of ease, 

1 ' 

* See the form of ordaining priests in bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. 158, 
I also the form of absolution, in the visitation of the sick, in the Common 
Prayer. 

t Luther, in the original Jena edition of his works, calls this Epistle " 9 
dry and chaffy Fpistle, unworthy an apostle." 
t Luther's works, Jena edition, 
t See Collier's Eccls. Hist. vol. ii. p. 257. 



Letter XX. 



fortune, and life itself, to the most indigent and abject of their 
flock, who are in danger of death, no less than to the rich and 
the great : while, on the other hand, very few Protestants, in 
that extremity, partake at all of the cold rites of their religion : 
though one of them is declared, in the Catechism, to be " neces- 
sary for salvation !" 

It is equally strange that a clergy, with such high claims and 
important advantages as those of the establishment, should deny 
that the orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, are sacrament- 
al, or that the Episcopal form of church government, and of 
ordaining the clergy, is in preference to any other required by 
Scripture. In fact, this is telling the legislature and the nation 
that, if they prefer the less. expensive ministry of the Presbyte- 
rians or Methodists, there is nothing divine or essential in the 
ministry itself, which will be injured by the change ; and that 
clergymen may be as validly ordained by the town crier with 
his bell, as by the metropolitan's imposition of hands ! Never- 
theless, this is the doctrine, not only of Hoadley's Socinian 
school, as I have elsewhere demonstrated,* but also of those mo- 
dern divines and dignitaries, who are the standard of orthodoxy .f 
Thus are the clergy of the English church, as well as all other 
Protestant ministers, by their own confession, destitute of all 
sacramental grace for performing their functions holily and bene- 
ficially.:): But we know, conformably to the doctrine of St. Paul, 
in both his Epistles to Timothy, 1 Tim. iv. 14. 2 Tim. i. 6. with 
the constant doctrine of the Catholic church, and of all other 
ancient, churches, that this grace is conferred on those who are 
truly ordained and in fit dispositions to receive it. We know, 
moreover, that the persuasion which the faithful entertain of the 
divine character and grace of their clergy, gives a great addi- 
tional weight to their lessons and ministry. — In like manner, 
with respect to matrimony, which the same apostle expressly 
calls a sacrament, Ephes. v. 32, independently of its peculiar 
grace, the very idea of its sanctity, is a preparation for entering 
into that state with religious dispositions. 

Next to the sacraments of the Catholic church, as helps to 
holiness and salvation, I must mention her public service. We 
continually hear the advocates of the establishment crying up 
the beauty and perfection of their liturgy but, they have not 
the candour to inform the public that it is all, in a manner, bor- 

* Dr. Balguy, Dr. Hey, &c. 

r The bishop of Lincoln's Elem. of Theol. vol. ii. pp. 376, 396. 
X See Letters to a Prebendary, Letter VIII. 

§ Dr. Rennel calls the church liturgy " the most perfect of human com- 
positions and the sacred legacy of the first reformer." Disc p. 237. 



Letter XX. 



149 



I rowed from the Catholic Missal and Ritual. Of this any one 
i may satisfy himself who will compare the prayers, lessons and 
Gospels, in these Catholic books, with those in the Book of 
i Common Prayer. But, though our service has been thus pur- 
• loined, it has, by no means been preserved entire : on the con- 
trary, we find it, in the latter, eviscerated of its noblest parts ; 
i particularly with respect to the principal and essential worship 
of all the ancient churches, the holy mass, which, from a true 
propitiatory sacrifice, as it stands in all their Missals, is cut 
I down to a mere verbal worship in The Order for Morning Pray- 
i er. Hence, our James L pronounced of the latter, that it is an 
i ill-said mass. The servants of God had, by his appointment, 
SACRIFICE both under the law of nature and. the written law ; 
! it would then be extraordinary, if under the law of grace they 
I were left destitute of this the most sublime and excellent act of 
I religion, which man can offer to his Creator. But we are not 

■ left destitute of it: on the contrary, that prophecy of Malachy 
is fulfilled, Mai. i. 11. In every place from the rising to the setting 
of the sun, sacrifice is offered and a pure oblation ; even Christ 

1 himself, who is really present and mystically offered on our 
: altars in the sacrifice of the mass. 

I pass over the solemnity, the order and the magnificence of 

■ our public worship and ritual in Catholic countries, which most 
candid Protestants, who have witnessed them, allow to be ex- 

I ceedingly impressive, and great helps to devotion, and which, 
I certainly, in most particulars, find their parallel in the worship 
and ceremonies of the Old law, ordained by God himself. Never- 
theless, it is a gross calumny to assert that the Catholic church 
does, or ever did make the essence of religion to consist in these 
externals ; and we challenge them to our councils and doctrinal 
i books in refutation of the calumny. In like manner, I pass over 
the many private exercises of piety which are generally prac- 
: tised in regular Catholic families and by individuals, such as 
! daily meditation and spiritual reading, evening prayers and ex- 
amination of the conscience, &c. These, it will not be denied, 
must be helps to obtain sanctity for those who are desirous of 
lit. — But I have said more than enough to convince your friends 
in which of the rival communions the means of sanctity are 
chiefly to be found. 

I am, Dear Sir, &c. J- M, 



150 



LETTER XXI. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
on the fruits of sanctity. 

Dear Sir, 

The fruits of sancity are the virtues practised by those who 
are possessed of it. Hence the present question is, whether 
these are to be found, for the most part, among the members of 
the ancient Catholic church, or among the different innovators, 
who undertook to reform it in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries ? In considering the subject, the first thing which 
strikes me is, that all the saints, and even those who are record- 
ed as such in the calendar of the church of England, and in 
whose names their churches are dedicated, lived and died strict 
members of the Catholic church, and zealously attached to her 
doctrine and discipline* For an example, in this calendar, we 
meet with a Pope Gregory, March 12, the zealous assertor of 
the papal supremacy,f and other Catholic doctrines ; a St. Bene- 
dict, March 21, the patriarch of the western monks and nuns ; 
a St. Dunstan, May 19, the vindicator of clerical celibacy ; a St. 
Augustine of Canterbury, May 26, the introducer of the whole 
system of Catholicity into England, and a venerable Bede, May 
27, the witness of this important fact. It is sufficient to mention 
the names of other Catholic saints, for example, David, Chad, 
Edward, Richard, Elphege, Martin-, Swithun, Giles, Lambert, 
Leonard, Hugh, Etheldreda, Remigius, and Edmund, all of 
which are inserted in the calendar, and give names to the chur- 
ches of the establishment. Besides these, there are very many 
of our other saints, whom all learned and candid Protestants 
unequivocally admit to have been such, for the extraordinary 
purity and sanctity of their lives. Even Luther acknowledges 
St. Anthony, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Bona- 
venture, &c. to have been saints, though avowed Catholics, and 
defenders of the Catholic church against the heretics and schis- 

* I must except king Charles I. who is rubricated as a martyr on Jan. 30 : 
nevertheless, it is confessed that he was far from possessing either the purity 
of a saint or the constancy of a martyr : for he actually gave up Episcopacy, 
and other essentials of the established religion, by his last treaty in the isle 
of Wight. 

t Many Protestant writers pretended that St. Gregory disclaimed the su- 
premacy, because he asserted against John of C. P. that neither he nor any 
other prelate ought to assume the title of Universal Bishop ; but that he 
claimed and exercised the supremacy, his own works and the history of 
Bede incontrovertibly demonstrate. 



Letter XXL 



151 



mat ics of their times- But, independently of this and of every 
other testimony, it is certain that the supernatural virtues and 
heroical sanctity of a countless number of holy personages of 
different countries, ranks, professions, and sexes, have illustrated 
the Catholic church in every age, with an effulgence which 
cannot be disputed or withstood. Your friends, I dare say, are 
not much acquainted with the histories of these brightest 
ornaments of Christianity : let me then invite them to peruse 
them ; not in the legends of obsolete writers, but in a work 
which, for its various learning and luminous criticism, was 
commended even by the Infidel Gibbon. I mean The Saints' 
Lives, in twelve octavo volumes, written by the late Rev. Alban 
Butler, president of St. Omer's college. Protestants are accus- 
tomed to paint in the most frightful colours the alleged depravity 
of the church, when Luther erected his standard, in order to 
justify him and his followers' defection from it : but to form a 
right judgment in the case, let them read the works of the con- 
temporary writers, an a Kempis, a Gerson, an Antoninus, Sfc. 
or let them peruse the lives of Vincent Ferrer, St. Laurence 
Justinian, St. Francis Paula, St. Philip Neri, St. Cajetan, St. 
Teresa, St. Francis Xavier, and of those other saints, who illu- 
minated the church about the period in question ; or let them, 
from the very accounts of Protestant historians, compare, as to 
religion and morality, archbishop Crammer with his rival bishop 
Fisher ; protector Seymour with chancellor More, Ann Bullen 
with Catharine of Arragon, Martin Luther and Calvin with 
Francis Xavier and cardinal Pole, Beza with St. Francis of 
Sales, queen Elizabeth with Mary queen of Scots ; these con- 
trasted characters having more or less relation with each other. 
From such a comparison, I have no sort of doubt what the de- 
cision of your friends will be concerning them, in point of their 
respective holiness. 

I have heretofore been called upon to consider the virtues 
and merits of the most distinguished reformers ;* and certainly 
we have a right to expect from persons of this description finish- 
ed models of virtue and piety. But instead of this being the 
case, I have shown that patriarch Luther was the sport of his 
unbridled passions,! pride, resentment, and lust ; that he was 
turbulent, abusive, and sacrilegious, in the highest degree ; that 
he was the trumpeter of sedition, civil war, rebellion, and deso- 
lation ; and finally, that by his own account, he was the scholar 
of Satan, in the most important article of his pretended Re* 

• Reflections on Popery, by Dr. Sturges, L. L. D., &C. 
t Letters to a Preb. Let. V. p. 178 



152 



Letter XXL 



formation.* I have made out nearly as heavy a charge agamtt 
his chief followers, Carlostad, Zuinglius, Ochin, Calvin, Beza, 
and Cranmer. With respect to the last named, who under Ed- 
ward VI. and his fratricide uncle, the duke of Somerset, was 
the chief artificer of the Anglican church, I have shown that, 
from his youthful life in a college, till his death at the stake, 
he exhibited such a continued scene of libertinism, perjury, hy- 
pocrisy, barbarity, (in burning his fellow Protestants,) profli- 
gacy, ingratitude, and rebellion, as is, perhaps, not to be matched 
in history. I have proved that all his fellow-labourers and fel- 
low-sufferers were rebels like himself, who would have been put 
to death by Elizabeth, if they had not been executed by Mary. 
1 adduced the testimony not only of Erasmus and other Catholics, 
but also of the gravest Protestant historians, and of the very 
reformers themselves, in proof that the morals of the people, so 
far from being changed for the better, by embracing the new 
religion, were greatly changed for the worse. f The pretended 
Reformation, in foreign countries, as in Germany, the Nether- 
lands, at Geneva, in Switzerland, France, and Scotland, besides 
producing popular insurrections, sackages, demolitions, sacrile- 
ges, and persecution beyond description, excited also open 
rebellions and bloody civil wars.| In England, where our 

* Letters to a Preb., Let. V. p. 183, where Satan's conference with Lu- 
ther, and the arguments by which he induced this reformer to abolish the 
mass, are detailed, from Luther's works. Tom. vii. p. 228. t Ibid. 

t The Huguenots in Dauphiny alone, as one of their writers confesses, 
burnt down 900 towns or villages, and murdered 378 priests or religious, in 
the course of one rebellion The number of churches destroyed by them 
throughout France, is computed at 20,000. The history of England's 
reformation (though this was certainly more orderly than that of other 
countries) has caused the conversion of many English Protestants i it pro- 
duced this effect on James II. and his first consort, the moiher of queen 
Mary, and queen Ann. The following is the account which the latter has 
left of this change, and which is to be found in Dodd's last volume, and in 
the Fifty Reasons of the duke of Brunswick. " Seeing much of the devo- 
tion of the Catholics, I made it my constant prayer that if I were not, I 
might, before I died, be in the true religion. I did not doubt but that I 
Was so till November last, when reading a book called The History of the 
Reformation, by Dr. Heylin, which I had heard very much commended, and 
had been told, if ever I had any doubts in my religion that would settle me : 
instead of which I found it the description of the horridest sacrileges in the 
world ; and could find no cause why we left the church, but for three, the 
most abominable ones : 1st, Henry VIII. renounced the Pope, because he 
would not give him leave to part with his wife and marry another ; 2dly, 
Edward VI. was a child and governed by his uncle, who made his estate 
out of the church lands : 3dly, Elizabeth not being lawful heiress to the 
crown, had no way to keep it but by renouncing a church which would not 
suffer so unlawful a thing. I confess I cannot think the Holy Ghost could 
ever be in such councils." 



Letter XXTL 



153 



writers boast of the orderly manner in which the change of 
religion was carried on, it, nevertheless, most unjustly and sac- 
rilegiously seized upon, and destroyed, in the reign of Henry 
VI 11. six hundred and forty -five monasteries, ninety colleges, 
and one hundred and ten hospitals, besides the bishopric of Dur- 
ham ; and, under Edward VI. or rather his profligate uncle, it 
dissolved two thousand three hundred and seventy-four colleges, 
chapels, or hospitals, in order to make princely fortunes of their 
property for that uncle and his unprincipled comrades, who, 
like banditti, quarreling over their spoils, soon brought each 
other to the block. Such were the fruits of sanctity, every 
where produced by this Reformation ! 

I am, &c. J. M, 

LETTER XXII. 

To Mr. J. TOULMIN. 
objections answered. 

Dear Sir, 

I have received your letter, animadverting upon mine to oui 
common friend, Mr. Brown, respecting the fruits of sanctity, as 
they appear in our respective communions. I observe, you do 
not contest my general facts or arguments, but resort to objec- 
tions which have been already answered in these, or in my 
other letters now before the public. You assert, as a notorious 
fact, that for several ages, prior to the Reformation, the Catho- 
lic religion was sunk into ceremonies and pageantry, and that 
it sanctioned the most atrocious crimes. In refutation of these 
calumnies, I have referred to our councils, to our most accre- 
dited authors of religion and morality, and to the lives and deaths 
of our most renowned saints, during the ages in question. I 
grant, sir, that you hold the same language on this subject that 
other Protestant writers do ; but I maintain that none of them 
make good their charges, and that their motive for advancing 
them is to find a pretext for excusing the irreligion of the pre- 
tended Reformation. You next extol the alleged sanctity of the 
Protestant sufferers, called martyrs, in the unhappy persecution 
of queen Mary's reign. I have discussed this matter at some 
length in The Letters to a Prebendary, and have shown, in op- 
position to John Fox and his copyists, that some of these pretend- 
ed martyrs were alive when he wrote the history of their death ;* 
that others of them, and the five bishops in particular, so far from 

• See Letter IV on Persecution 



154 



Letter XX1L 



being saints, were notoriously deficient in the ordinary duties of 
good subjects and honest men ;* that others again were notori- 
ous assassins, as Gardener, Flower, and Rough ; or robbers, as 
Debenham, King, Marsh, Cauches, Gilbert, Massey, &c.f while 
not a few of them retracted their errors, as Bilney, Taylor, 
Wassalia and died, to all appearance, Catholics. To the whole 
ponderous folio of Fox's falsehoods I have opposed the genuine 
and edifying Memoirs of Missionary Priests and other Catholics, 
who suffered death for their Religion during the reigns of Eliza- 
beth and the Stuarts. Finally, you reproach me with the scan- 
dalous lives of some of our Popes, during the middle ages, and 
of very many Catholics of different descriptions, throughout the 
church at the present day ; and you refer me to the edifying 
lives of a great number of Protestants, now living, in this country. 

My answer, dear sir, in brief, to your concluding objections, 
is that I, as well as Baronius, Bellarmin, and other Catholic 
writers, have unequivocally admitted that some few of our pon- 
tiffs have disgraced themselves by their crimes, and given just 
cause of scandal to Christendom : \ but I have remarked that the 
credit of our cause is not affected by the personal conduct of 
particular pastors, who succeed one another in a regular way, 
in the manned that the credit of yours is by the behaviour of 
your founders, who professed to have received extraordinary 
commission from God to reform religion.^ . I acknowledge, with 
the same unreseivedness, that the lives of a great proportion 
of Catholics in this and other parts of the church, is a disgrace 
to that holy Catholic church which they profess to believe 
in. Unhappy members of the true religion, by whom the name 
of God (and his holy church) is blasphemed among the nations ! 
Rom. ii. 24. Unhappy Catholics, who live enemies of the cross 
of Christ, whose end is destruction, who mind only earthly things ! 
Philip, iii. 18. But, it must needs be that scandals should come : 
nevertheless, wo to that man by whom the scandal cometh ! Matt, 
xviii. 7. In short, 1 bear a willing testimony to the public and 
private worth of very many of my Protestant countrymen, of dif- 
ferent religions, as citizens, as subjects, as friends, as children, 
as parents, as moral men, and as Christians, in the general sense 
of the word ; still 1 must say that I find the best of them far 
short of the holiness, which is prescribed in the Gospel and is ex- 
emplified in the lives of those saints, whom I have mentioned. 
On this subject I will quote an authority which I think you will not 
object to. Dr. Hey says : " In England I could almost say, w«f 



* See Letter V. on the Reformation. 
t See Letter II. on Supremacy. 



t Letter IV. 
§ Ibid. 



Letter XXII. 



155 



are too little acquainted with contemplative religion. The monk 
painted by Sterne, may give us a more favourable idea of it, than 
our prejudices generally suggest. I once travelled with a reco- 
let, and conversed with a minim at his convent : and they both 
had that kind of character which Sterne gives to his monk : that 
refinement of body and mind ; that pure glow of meliorated pas- 
sion, that polished piety and humanity.* In a former letter to 
your society, I have stated that sincere humility, by which, from 
a thorough knowledge of our sins and misery, we became little 
in our own eyes, and try to avoid, rather than to gain the praise 
and notice of others, is the very groundwork of all other Chris- 
tian virtues. It has been objected to Protestants, ever since the 
defection of their arrogant patriarch, Luther, that they have said 
little, and have appeared to understand less, of this essential vir- 
tue. I might say the same with respect to the necessity of an 
entire subjugation of our other congenial passions, avarice, lust, 
anger, intemperance, envy, and sloth, as I have said of pride 
and vain glory ; but I pass over these, to say a few words of 
certain maxims expressly contained in Scripture. It cannot 
then be denied that our Saviour said to the rich young man, If 
thou wilt be perfect, go sell all thou hast and give to the poor, and 
thou shalt have treasures in heaven ; or that he declared, on an- 
other occasion, There are eunuchs who have made themselves eu- 
nuchs (continent) for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is 
able to receive it, let him receive it. Mat. xix. 12. Now it is no- 
torious that this life of voluntary poverty and perpetual chastity, 
continues to be vowed and observed by great numbers of both 
sexes in the Catholic church ; while it is nothing more than a 
subject of ridicule to the best of Protestants. Again : " that we 
ought to fast, is a truth more manifest than it should here need 
be proved." I here use the words of the church of England, in 
her Homily iv. p. 1 1 ; conformably with which doctrine, your 
church enjoins, in her Common Prayer Book, the same days of fast- 
ing and abstinence as the Catholic church does, namely, the forty 
days of Lent, the ember days, all the Fridays in the year, &c. ; 
nevertheless, where is the Protestant to be found, who will sub- 
mit to the mortification of fasting, even to obey his own church ? 
I may add, that Christ enjoins constant prayer, Luke xviii. 1 ; 
conformably to which injunction, the Catholic church requires 
her clergy, at least, from the subdeacon up to the Pope, daily to 
say the seven canonical hours, consisting chiefly of Scriptural 
psalms and lessons, and which take up in the recital, near an 
hour and a half, in addition to their other devotions : now what 

• Lectures in Divinity, vol. i. p. 364. 



3 



150 



Letter XXIIL 



pretext had the Protestant clergy, whose pastoral duties are s« 
much lighter than ours, to lay aside these inspired prayers, ex- 
cept in devotion ? Luther himself said his office, for some time 
after his apostasy. — But to conclude, as it is of so much impor- 
tance to ascertain which is the holy church, mentioned in your 
creed : and as you can follow no better rule for this purpose 
than to judge of the tree by its fruits, so let me advise you and 
your friends to make use of every means in your power to com- 
pare regular families, places of education, and especially eccle- 
siastical establishments of the different communions, with each 
other, as to morality and piety, and to decide for yourselves ac- 
cording to what you observe in them. 

I am, &c- J. M. 

LETTER XXIIL 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
on divine attestation of sanctity. 

Dear Sir, 

Having demonstrated the distinctive holiness of the Catholic 
church, in her doctrine, her practices, and her fruits of sanctity, 
I am prepared to show that God himself has borne testimony to 
her holiness, and to those very doctrines and practices, which 
Protestants object to as unholy and superstitious, by the many 
incontestable miracles he has wrought in her and in their favour, 
from the age of the apostles down to the present age. 

The learned Protestant advocates of revelation, such as Gro- 
tius, Abbadie, Paley, Wa*tson, &c. in defending this common 
cause against Infidels, all agree in the sentiment of the last 
named, that " Miracles are the criterion of truth." Accordingly 
they observe, that both Mouses, Exod. iv. xiv. Numb. xvi. 29, and 
Jesus Christ, John 37, 38. — xiv. 12. — xv. 24. constantly appealed 
to the prodigies they wrought, in attestation of their divine mis- 
sion and doctrine. Indeed the whole history of God's people, 
from the beginning of the world down to the time of our Bless- 
ed Saviour, was nearly a continued series of miracles.* The 
latter, so far from confining the power of working them to his 
own person or time, expressly promised the same, and even a 
greater power of this nature to his disciples, Mark xvi. 17. John 

* To say nothing of the Urim and Thummim, the Water of Jealousy, and 
the superabundant harvest of the sabbatical year, it is incontestable, from 
the Gospel of St. John v. 2, that the probatical pond was endowed by an 
angel with a miraculous power of healing every kind of disease, in thfl 
time of Christ. 



Letter XXIII. 



157 



xiv. 12. For both the reasons here mentioned, namely, that 
the Almighty was pleased to illustrate the society of his chosen 
servants, both under the law of nature and the written law, with 
frequent miracles, and that Christ promised a continuance of 
them to his disciples under the new law, we are led to expect 
that the true church should be distinguished by miracles, wrought 
in her, and in proof of her. Accordingly the fathers and doctors 
of the Catholic church, among other proofs in her favour, have 
constantly appealed to miracles, by which she is illustrated, and 
reproached their contemporary heretics and schismatics with 
the want of them. Thus St. Irenaeus, a disciple of St. Polycarp, 
who himself was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist, re- 
proaches the heretics, against whom he writes, that they could 
not give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, cast out devils, 
or raise the dead to life, as he testifies was frequently done in 
the true church * Thus also his contemporary, Tertullian, 
speaking of the heretics, says : " I wish to see the miracles they 
have wrought."t St. Pacian, in the fourth century, writing 
against the schismatic Novatus, scornfully asks : " Has he the 
gift of tongues or prophecy ? Has he restored the dead to life 1"\ 
The great St. Augustin, in various passages of his works, refers 
to the miracles wrought in the Catholic church, in evidence of 
her veracity. § St. Nicetas, bishop of Treves, in the sixth cen- 
tury, advises queen Clodosind, in order to convert her husband, 
Alboin, king of the Lombards, from Arianism, to induce him to 
send confidential messengers to witness the miracles wrought at 
the tombs of St. Martin, St. Germanus, or St. Hilary, in giving 
sight to the blind, speeches to the dumb, &c. ; adding : " Are 
such things done in the churches of the Arians ?"|| About the 
same time, Levigild, king of the Goths in Spain, an Arian, who 
was converted, or nearly so, by his Catholic son, St. Hermen- 
gild, reproached his Arian bishops that no miracles were wrought 
among them, as was the case, he said, among the Catholics.*!! 
The seventh century was illustrated by the miracles of our 
apostle St. Augustin, of Canterbury, wrought in confirmation of 
the doctrine which he taught, as was recorded on his tomb ;** 

* Lib. ii. contra Haer. c. 31. t Lib. De Praescr. 

t Ep. ii. ad Symphor. 

§ " Dubitamus nos ejus Ecclesise condere gremio, quae usque ad confes 
sionem generis humani ad Apostolica sede, per suceessionem Episcoporurn 
(frustra haereticis circumlatrantibus, et partim plebis ipsius judicio, parti in 
Conciliorum gravitate, partim etiam Miraculorum majestate damnatis) 
culmen auctoritatis obtinuit." — De Utilit. Cred. c iv. 

II Labbe's Concil. torn v. p. 835. 1T Greg. Turon. 1. ix. c. 15. 

** " Hie requiescit D. Augustinus, &e. qui operatione miraculorum suf- 
fultus, Edelberthuin Regem ac gentem illius ab idolorum eultu ad fideru 
14 * 



158 



Letter XXIII. 



and this doctrine, by the confession of the learned Protestants, 
was purely the Roman Catholic* In the eleventh century, we 
hear a celebrated doctor, speaking of the proofs of the Catholic 
religion, exclaim thus : " O Lord ! if what we believe is an 
error, thou art the author of it, since it is confirmed amongst us 
by those signs and prodigies which could not be wrought but by 
thee."t In short, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Xavier, &c. all 
appealed to the miracles, which God wrought by their hands in 
proof of the Catholic doctrine. I need not mention the contro- 
versial works of Bellarmin and other modern schoolmen ; never- 
theless, I cannot help observing, that even Luther, when the 
Anabaptists, adopting his own principles, had proceeded to 
excesses of doctrine and practice which he disapproved of, re- 
quired them to prove their authority for their innovations by the 
performance of miracles \% You will naturally ask, dear sir, 
how Luther himself got rid of the argument implied by this 
requisition, which it is evident, bore as, strongly against him, as 
against the Anabaptists ? On one occasion, he answered thus : 
" I have made an agreement with the Lord not to send me any 
visions, or dreams, or angels,"§ &c. On another occasion, he 
boasts of his visions as follows : " I also was in spirit," and, " if 
I must glory in what belongs to me, I have seen more spirits 
than they (the Swinkfeldians, who denied the real presence) will 
see in a whole year."|| 

Such has been the doctrine of the fathers and Catholic wri- 
ters^concerning miracles in general, as divine attestations in fa- 
vour of that church in which God is pleased to work them. I 
will now mention, or refer to. a few particular miraculous events 
of unquestionable evidence, which have illustrated this church, 
during the eighteen centuries of her existence. 

No Christian questions the miracles and prophecies of the 
apostles ; and if they do not, why should any Christian question 
the vision and prophecy of the apostolic saint Polycarp, the 
angel of the church of Smyrna, Rev. ii. 8, concerning the man- 
ner of his future martyrdom, namely, by fire ?^[ or the testi- 
mony of his episcopal correspondent, who was likewise a disci- 
ple of the apostles, St. Ignatius bishop of Antioch, who testifies 
that the wild beasts, let loose upon the martyrs, were frequently 

Christi convertit." — Bed. Eccles. Hist. 1. ii. c. 3. See, in particular, the 
account of this saint's restoring sight to a blind man in confirmation of hia 
doctrine. Ibid. c. 2 

* The Centuriators of Magdeburg, Saec. 6. Bale. In Act. Rom. Pont. 
Humphrey's Jesuit, &c. + Ric. a S. Vict, de Trinit. 1. i. t Sleidan. 

§ Manlius in loc. commun. See Brierley's Apology, p. 448. 

U Luth. ad Senat. Civil. Germ. H Genuine Acts, by Ruinart. 



Letter XXIII. 



159 



restrained by a divine power from hurting them ? In conse- 
quence of this he prayed that it might not be the case with 
him,* St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, was the disciple of St. 
Polycarp, and like him, an illustrious martyr : shall we then 
call in question his testimony, when he declares, as I have no- 
ticed above, that miracles, even to the revival of the dead, fre- 
quently took place in the Catholic church, but never among the 
heretics ?f Or shall we disbelieve that of the learned Origen 
in the next century, who says that it was usual with the Chris- 
tians of his time to drive away devils, heal the sick, and foretel 
things to come : adding, " God is my witness, I would not re- 
commend the religion of Jesus by fictitious stories, but only by 
clear and certain facts."}: One of Origen's scholars was St. 
Gregory, bishop of Neocesarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus, or 
Wonderworker, for the numerous and astonishing miracles 
I which God wrought by his means. Many of these, even to the 
I shopping the course of a flood, and the moving of a mountain, 
j are recorded by the learned fathers, who, soon after, wrote his 
life.§ St. Cyprian, the great ornament of the third century, 
recounts several miracles which took place in it, some of which 
prove the blessed eucharist to be a sacrifice, and the lawfulness 
of receiving it under one kind. In the middle of the fourth 
century happened that wonderful miracle, when the emperor 
Julian the Apostate, attempting to rebuild the temple of Jerusa- 
lem, in order to disprove the prophecy of Daniel, concerning 
it, Dan. ix. 27, tempests, whirlwinds, earthquakes, and fiery 
eruptions convulsed the scene of the undertaking, maiming or 
blasting the thousands of Jews and other labourers employed in 
the work, and, in short, rendering the completion of it utterly 
impossible. In the mean time a luminous cross, surrounded 
with a circle of rays, appeared in the heavens, and numerous 
crosses were impressed on the bodies and garments of the per- 
sons present. These prodigies are so strongly attested by al- 
most all the authors of the age, Arians and Pagans, no less than 
Catholics,! that no one but a downright sceptic can call them in 
question. They have accordingly been acknowledged by the 
most learned Protestants. T Another miracle, which may vie 

* Ep. ad Roman + Contra Hser. 1. ii. c. 31. 

t Contra Cels. 1. i § Greg. Nyss. Euseb. 1. vi St. Basil, St. Jerom. 

II Besides the testimony of the Fathers, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. 
Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, and of the historians Socrates, Sozomen Theodo- 
ret, &c. these events are also acknowledged by Philostorgius the Arian^ 
Ammianus Marcellinus the Pagan, &c 

IT Bishop Warburton published a book, called Julian, in proof of thesn 
miracles. They are also acknowledged by Bishop Halifax, Disc. p. 23. 



160 



Letter XXIIL 



with the above mentioned, for the number and quality of its wit- 
nesses, took place in the following century at Typassus in Af- 
rica ; where a whole congregation of Catholics being assembled 
to perform their devotions, contrary to the orders of the Arian 
tyrant, Hunnerick, their right hands were chopped off, and their 
tongues cut out to the roots, by his command : nevertheless they 
continued to speak as perfectly as they did before this barba 
rous act * 1 pass over numberless miracles recorded by SS. 
Basil, Athanasius, Jerom, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustin, and 
the other illustrious fathers and church nistorians, who adorned 
the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries of Christianity ; and shall 
barely mention one miracle, which both the last mentioned holy 
bishops relate, as having been themselves actual witnesses of it, 
that of restoring sight to a blind man, by the application to his 
eyes of a cloth which had touched the relics of SS. Gervasius, 
and Protasius.f The latter saint, one of the most enlightened 
men who ever handled a pen, gives an account, in the work to 
which I have just referred^ of a great number of miracles, 
wrought in Africa, during his episcopacy, by the relics of St. 
Stephen, and among the rest, of seventy wrought in his own dio- 
cese of Hippo, and some of them in his own presence, in the 
course of two years ; among these was the restoration of three 
dead bodies to life. 

From this notice of the great St. Augustin of Hippo, in the 
fifth century, I proceed to observe, concerning St. Augustin of 
Canterbury, at the end of the sixth, that the miracles wrought 
by him, were not only recorded on his tomb, and in the history 
of the venerable Bede and other writers, but that an accouut of 
them was transmitted, at the time they took place, by St. Greg- 
ory to Eulogius, patriarch of St. Alexandria, in an Epistle, still 
extant, in which this Pope compares them with those performed 
by the apostles. § The latter saint wrote likewise an Epistle to. 
St. Augustin himself, which is still extant in his works, and in 
Bede's history, cautioning him against being elated with vain 
glory, on the occasion of these miracles, and reminding him that 

* The vouchers for this miracle are Victor Vitensis, Hist. Persec. Van- 
dal. 1. ii. the emperor Justinian, who declares that he had seen some of the 
sufferers, Codex Just. Tit. 27, the Greek historian Procopius, who says he 
nad conversed with them, L. i. de Bell. Vand. c. 8. iEneas of Geza, a 
Platonic philosopher, who having examined their mouths, protested that he 
was not so much surprised at their being able to talk as at their being able 
to live. De Immort. Anim. Victor. Turon. isid. Hispal. Greg. Magn. &c. 
The miracle is admitted by Abbadie, Dodwell, Mosheim, and other learned 
Protestants. 

t Aug. De Civit. Dei, 1. xxii. p. 8. X Ibid. 1. sxii. 

i Episf. S. Greg. 1. vii. 



Letter XXIII. 161 

God had bestowed the power of working them, not on his own 
account, but for the conversion of the English nation.* On the 

; supposition that our apostle had wrought no miracles, what farces 
must these Epistles have exhibited among the first characters of 
the Christian world. 

Among the numberless and well attested miracles which tha 
histories of the middle ages present to our view, I stop at those 
of the illustrious abbot St. Bernard, in the twelfth century, to 
whose sanctity the most eminent Protestant writers have borne 
high testimony.! This saint, in the life of his friend, St. Ma- 
lachy of Armagh, among other miracles, mentions the cure of 

i the withered hand of a youth, by the application of his friend's 
dead hand to it.J But this, and all the miracles which St.Bernard 
mentions of other saints, quite disappear, when compared with 
those wrought by himself ; which for their splendour and pub- 
licity, never were exceeded. All France, Germany, Switzer- 
land, and Italy bore^testimony to them ; and prelates, princes, 
and the emperor himself were often the spectators of them. In a 
journey which the saint made into Germany, he was followed 
by Philip, archdeacon of Liege, who was sent by Sampson, 
archbishop of Rheims, to observe his actions. § This writer ac- 
cordingly, gives an account of a vast number of instantaneous 
cures, which the holy abbot performed on the lame, the blind, 
the paralytic, and other diseased persons, with all the circum- 
stances of them. Speaking of those wrought at Cologne, he 
says : " They were not performed in a corner ; but the whole 

i city w r as witness to them. If any one doubts or is curious, he 
may easily satisfy himself on the spot, especially as some of 
them were wrought on persons of no inconsiderable rank and 
reputation."! A great number of these miracles were performed 
in express confirmation of the Catholic doctrine which he de- 
fended. Thus preaching at Sarlat against the impious and im- 
pure Henricians, a species of Albigenses, he took some loaves 
of bread and blessed them : after which he said : " By this you 
shall know that I preach to you the true doctrine, and the here- 
tics a false doctrine : all your sick, who shall eat of this bread, 
shall recover their health;" which prediction, was confirmed by 

* Ibid, et Hist. Bed, 1. i. c. 31. 

t Luther, Calvin, Bucer, CEcolompadius, Jewel, Whitaker, Mosheim, &c. 
X Vita Malach. inter Oper. Bern. 
I § St. Bernard's Life was written by his three contemporaries, William, 
abbot of St. Thierry, Arnold, abbot of Bonevaux, and Geoffery, the saint's 
I secretary, and by other early writers : his own eloquent Epistles, andothet 
works, furnish many particu'ars. 
U Published bv Mabillon. 

14* 



162 



Utter XXIH. 



the event.* St. Bernard himself, irt the most celebrated of his 

works,! addressed to Pope Eugenius III. refers to the miracles, 
which God enabled him to work, by way of justifying' himself 
for having preached up the second crusade ;J and, in his letter 
to the people of Thoulouse, he mentions his having detected the 
heretics among them, not only by words, but also by miracles. § 
The miracles of St.. Francis Xavier, the apostle of India, who 
was contemporary with Luther, in number, splendour, and pub- 
licity, may vie with St. Bernard's. They consisted in foretell- 
ing future events, speaking unknown languages, calming tem- 
pests at sea, curing various maladies, and raising 'the dead to 
life ; and though they took place in remote countries, yet they 
were verified in the same, soon after the saint's death, by vir- 
tue of a commission from John III. king of Portugal, and they 
were generally acknowledged, not only by Europeans of differ- 
ent religions in the Indies, || but also by the native Mahometans 
and Pagans. If At the same time with this saint lived the holy 
contemplative St. Philip Neri, in proof of whose miracles three 
hundred witnesses, some of them persons of high rank, were 
juridically examined.** The following century was illustrated 
by the shining virtues and attested miracles, even to the resur- 
rection of the dead, of St. Francis of Sales,tt as it was also by 
those of St. John Francis Regis, concerning which, twenty-two- 
bishops of Languedoc wrote thus to Pope Clement XI : "We 
are witnesses that, before the tomb of F. J. F. Regis, the blind 
see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dumb speak."|| You 
will understand, dear sir, that I mention but a few of the saints, 
and with respect to these, but a few of their miracles, as my 
object is to prove the single fact that God has illustrated the 
Catholic church, chiefly by means of his saints, with undeniable 
miracles, in the different ages of her existence. What now will 
you, dear sir, and your friends say to the evidence, here addu- 
ced ? Will you say that all the holy fathers, up to the apostolic 
age, and that all the ecclesiastical writers down to the Reforma- 
tion, and, since this period, that all Catholic authors, prelates 
and officials, have been in a league to deceive mankind ? In 
short, that they are all liars and impostors alike ? Such, in fact, 
is the absurd and horrible system, which, to get rid of the DI- 

* Geof. in Vit. Bern. t De Consideratione. 

* De Consid. 1. ii. § Ad Tolos. Ep. 241. 

II See the testimonies of Hackluyt, Baldeus, and Tavernier, all Protes- 
tants, in Bohour's Life of St. Xavier, translated by the poet Dryden. 
IT Ibid. * *See Butler's Saints' Lives, May 26. 

H See Marsollier's Life of St. F. de Sales, translated by Dr. Coombea 
tt S«e his Life by Daubenton, which is abridged by Butler, June 16 



Utter XXIII. 



163 



VINE ATTESTATION, in favour of the Catholic church, the 
celebrated Dr. Conyers Middleton has declared for ; as hav« 
most Protestant writers who have handled the subject, since 
the publication of his Free Inquiry. This system, however, 
which is a libel on human nature, does not only lead to general 
scepticism in other respects, but also undermines the credit of 
he Gospel itself. For if all the ancient fathers and other writers 
are to be disbelieved, respecting the miracles of their times, and 
even those which they themselves witnessed, upon what grounds 
are we to believe them, in their report of the miracles which 
they had heard of Christ and his apostles, those main props of 
the Gospel and our common Christianity 1 Who knows but 
they may have forged all the contents of the former, and the 
whole history of the latter 1 It was impossible these conse- 
quences should escape the penetration of Middleton : but a worse 
consequence, in his opinion, which would follow from admitting 
the veracity of the holy fathers, namely, a divine attestation of 
the sanctity of the Catholic church, banished his dread of the 
former. Let him now speak to this point for himself, in his 
own flowing periods. He begins with establishing an important 
fact, which I also have been labouring to prove, where he says : 
If It must be confessed that the claim to a miraculous power was 
universally asserted and believed in all Christian countries and 
in all ages of the church, till the time of the Reformation : for 
ecclesiastical history makes no difference between one age and 
another, but carries on the succession of its miracles, as of all 
other common events, through all of them indifferently to that 
memorable period.* As far as church historians can illustrate 
any thing, there is not a single point, in all history, so constantly, 
explicitly, and unanimously affirmed by them as the continual 
succession of those powers, through all ages, from the earliest 
father, who first mentions them, down to the Reformation ; which 
same succession is still further deduced by persons of the same 
eminent character for probity, learning and dignity, in the Romish 
church, to this very day ; so that the only doubt which can 
remain with us is, whether church historians are to be trusted 
or not : for if any credit be due to them in the present case, it 
must reach to all or none : because the reason for believing them 
in any one age will be found to be of equal force in all, as far 
as it depends on the character of the persons attesting, or on the 
thing attested "'f We shall now hear Dr. Middleton's decision 
on this weighty matter, and upon what grounds it is formed. 
He says : " The prevailing opinion of Protestants, namely, of 



Free Inquiry, Introduct. Disc. p. xlv. 



1 Ibid. Preface, p. xv. 



164 



Letter XXIII. 



Tillotson, Marshal, Dodwell, &c. is, that miracles continued 
during the three first centuries. Dr. Waterland brings them 
down to the fourth, Dr. Beriman to the fifth. These unwarily 
_ betrayed the Protestant cause into the hands of its enemies : for 
it was in those primitive ages, particularly in the third, fourth, 
and fifth, those flourishing times of miracles, in which the chief 
corruptions of Popery, monkery, the worship of relics, invocation 
of saints, prayers for the dead, superstitious use of images and 
of sacraments were introduced."* " We shall find, after the 
conversion of the Roman empire, the greater part of their boasted 
miracles were wrought either by monks, or relics, or the sign of 
the cross, &c. : wherefore, if we admit the miracles, we must 
admit the rites for the sake of which they were wrought : they 
both rest on the same bottom."f " Every one may see what a 
resemblance the principles and practice of the fourth century, as 
they are described by the most eminent fathers of that age, bear 
to the present rites of the Popish church"^ " When we reflect 
on the surprising confidence with which the fathers of the fourth 
age affirmed, as true, what they themselves had forged, or knew 
to be forged, it is natural to suspect that so bold a defiance of 
truth could not be acquired or become general at once, but must 
have been gradually carried to that height by the example of 
former ages."§ Such are the grounds on which this shameless 
declaimer accuses all the most holy and learned men, whom the 
world has produced during 1800 years, of forgery and a combi- 
nation to cheat mankind. He does not say a word to show that 
the combination itself is either probable or possible ; all he ad- 
vances is, that this libel on human nature, is necessary for the 
support of Protestantism ; for he says, and this with evident 
truth : " By granting the Romanists but a single age of miracles, 
after the time of the apostles, we shall be entangled in a series 
of difficulties, whence we can never fairly extricate ourselves, 
till we allow the same powers also to the present age."|| 

Methinks I hear some of your society thus asking me, Do you 
then pretend that your church possesses the miraculous powers at 
the present day ? I answer, that the church never possessed 
miraculous powers in the sense of most Protestant writers, so as 
to be able to effect cures or other supernatural events at her mere 
pleasure : for even the apostles could not do this, as we learn 
from the history of the lunatic child, Mat., xvii. 16 : but this I 
say, that the Catholic church, being always the beloved spouse 
of Christ, Rev. xxi. 9, and continuing at all times to bring forth 



* Introd. p. li. 
i Ibid. p. lxxxiv. 



t Introd. p. lxvi. t Ibid lxv. 

II Ibid. p. xcvi. 



Letter XXUL 



16$ 



| children of heroieal sanctity, God fails not in this, any more 
L than in past ages to illustrate tier and them by unquestionable 
L miracles : accordingly in those processes which are constantly 
h going on, at the apostolical See, for the canonization of new 
I saints,* fresh miracles of a recent date continue to be proved 
i with the highest degree of evidence, as I can testify from having 
j, perused, on the spot, the official printed account of some of them.f 
[ For the further satisfaction of your friends, I will inform them 
; that I have had satisfactory proof that the astonishing catastro- 
| phe of Louis XVI. and his queen, in being beheaded on a scaffold, 
I was foretold by a nun of Fougeres, Soeur Nativite, twenty years 
I before it happened, and that the banishment of the French clergy 
\\ from their country, long before it happened, was predicted by 
t the holy French pilgrim, Benedict Labre, whose miracles caused 
i the conversion of the late Rev. Mr. Thayer, an American cler- 
\ gyman, who being at Rome, witnessed several of them. With 
I respect to miraculous cures of a late date, I have the most re- 
i sp^ctable attestation of several of them, and 1 am well acquainted 
i with four or five persons who have experienced them. The 
1 following facts are respectfully attested, but at much greater 
length, by the Rev. Thomas Sadler, of Trafford, near Manches- 
1 ter, and the Rev. J. Crathorne, of Garswood, near Wigan : — 
i Joseph Lamb, of Eccles, near Manchester, now twenty-eight 
< years old, on the 12th of August, 1814, fell from a hay-rick, four 
i yards and a half high, by which accident it was conceived the 
I spine of his back was broken. Certain it is, that he could neither 
walk nor stand without crutches, down to the second of October, 
! and that he described himself as feeling the most exquisite pain 
, in his back. On that day, having prevailed with much difficulty 
, upon his father, who was then a Protestant, to take him in a cart 
with his wife and two friends, Thos. Cutler and Eliz. Dooley, 
, to Garswood, near Wigan, where the hand of F. Arrowsmith, 
one of the Catholic priests who suffered death at Lancaster, for 
the exercise of his religion, in the reign of Charles I. is preserved, 
and has often caused wonderful cures, he got himself conveyed 
to the altar rails of the chapel, and there to be signed, on his 
i *>ack, with the sign of the cross, by that hand ; when, feeling a 

* Among the late canonizations are those, in 1807 and 1808, of S. F. Car- 
tcciolo, founder of the Regular Clerks ; of St. Angela de Mercis, foun- 
dress of the Ursuline Nuns, of St. Mary of the Incarnation, Mile. Acarie, 
fcc. One of the latest beatifications is that of B. Alfonso Liguori, bishop 
*f St. Agata de Goti. 

t One of these, proved in the process of the last mentioned saint, con- 
noted in the cure and restoration of an amputated breast of a woman, who 
w*s at the point of death from a cancer. 



166 



Letter XXIII. 



particular sensation and total change in himself, as he expressed 
it, he exclaimed to his wife, Mary, I can walk ; this he did with- 
out any help whatever, walking first into an adjoining room and 
thence to the cart which conveyed him home. With his debility, 
his pains also left him, and his back has continued well ever 
since.* These particulars, as they were respectively witnesses 
of them, the above named persons, all now living, are ready to 
declare upon oath. 1 have attestations of incurable cancers and 
other disorders being suddenly remedied by the same instrument 
of God's bounty ; but it would be a tedious work to transcribe 
them, or the other attestations in my possession of a similar nature. 

Among those of my personal acquaintance who have experi- 
enced supernatural cures, 1 will mention Mary Wood, now liv- 
ing at Taunton Lodge, where several other witnesses of the 
facts 1 am going to state live with her. " On March 15, 1809, 
Mary Wood, in attempting to open a sash window, pushed her 
left hand through a pane of glass, which caused a very large 
and deep transverse wound in the inside of the left arm, and di- 
vided the muscles and nearly the whole of the tendons that lead 
to the hand ; from which accident, she not only suffered, at 
times, the most acute pain, but was from the period I first saw 
her (March 15) till some time in July, totally deprived of the 
use of her hand and arm."f What passed between the latter 
end of July, when, as the surgeon elsewhere says, " he left his 
patient," having no hopes of restoring her, till the 6th of Au- 
gust, on the night of which she was perfectly and miraculously 
cured, I shall copy from a letter to me, dated Nov. 19, 1809, 
by her amanuensis, Miss Maria Hornyold. " The surgeon 
gave little or no hopes of her ever again having the use of her 
hand, which, together with the arm, seemed withered and some- 
what contracted ; only saying, in some years, nature might give 
her some little use of it, which was considered by her superiors as 
a mere delusive comfort. Despairing of further human assistance 
towards her cure, she determined, with the approbation of hor 
said superiors, to have recourse to God, through the intercession 
of St. Winefrid, by a Novena.| Accordingly on the 6th of 
August she put a piece of moss, from the saint's well, on her 
arm, continuing recollected and praying, &c. ; when, to her 
great surprise, the next morning she found she could dress her- 
self, put her arm behind her and to her head, having regained 

* The Rev. Mr. Sadler's letter to me is dated Aug. 6, 1817- 

t This account is copied from a letter to Miss F. T. Bird, dated Sept 

JO, 1809, by Mr. Woodford, an eminent surgeon of Taunton, who attended 

Mary Wood. 
J Certain prayers continued during nine days. 



Lettei XXIII. 



16T 



6 the free use and full strength of it. In short, she was perfectly 
•i cured !" In this state I myself saw her and examined her hand, 
y a few years afterwards, and in the same state she still continues, 
,1 it the above named place, with many other highly credible 
]! vouchers who are ready respectively to attest these particulars. 
« 'On the 16th of the month, the surgeon was sent for; and, 

being asked his opinion concerning Mary Wood's arm, he gave 

1 no hope of a perfect aire, and very little of her ever having even 
Ji the least use of it ; when she being introduced to him and show- 
s ing him the arm, which he thoroughly examined and tried, he 
.! was so affected at the sight and the recital of the manner of the 
■i cure, as to shed tears, and exclaim, it was a special interposition 

■ of Divine Providence." 

a I shall say little of the miraculous cure of Winefrid White, a 
,1 young woman of Wolverhampton, on the 28th of June, 1805 
I at Holywell, having published a detailed account of it, soon 
9 after it happened, which work has been republished in England 
■i and in Ireland.* Let it suffice to say ; 1st, that the disease was 
6 one of the most alarming topical ones which are known, namely, 
Ji a curvature of the spine, as her physician and surgeon ascertain- 
t ed, who treated it accordingly, by making two great issues, one 
9 on each side of the spine, of which the patient's back still 
* bears the marks ; 2dly, that, besides the most acute pains, 
t throughout the whole nervous system, and particularly in the 
- 1 brain, this disease of the spine produced a hemiplegia or palsy 
v on one side of the patient, so that when she could feebly crawl, 
,1 with the help of a crutch under her right arm, she was forced 

Ii to drag her left leg and arm after her, just as if they made no 
i part of her ; 3dly, that her disorder was of long continuance, 
• namely, of three years standing ; though not in the same de- 
P gree, till the latter part of that time, and that it was publicly 
p known to all her neighbours and a great many others ; 4thly, 
p that having performed the acts of devotion which she felt her- 
p self called to undertake, and having bathed in the fountain, she, 
in one instant of time, on the 28th of June, 1805, found herself 
1' freed from all her pains and disabilities, so as to be able to 
J walk, run and jump, like any other young person, and to carry a 
i greater weight with the le/t arm than she could with the right ; 

■ 5thly, that she has continued in this state these twelve years 
6 down to the present time ; lastly, that all the above-mentioned 

circumstances have been ascertained by me in the regular ex- 
amination of the several witnesses of them ; being persons o* 

i 

* By Ceating and Brown, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square, London ; 
Coyne, Dublin. 



168 



Letter XXIV. 



different religions, situations in life and countries, in the places 
of their respective residence, namely, in Staffordshire, Lanca- 
shire, and Wales, the authentic documents of which are contain- 
ed in the work referred to above. Several of the witnesses are 
still living, as is Winefrid White herself. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXIV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
objections answered. 

Dear Sir, 

1 subscribe to the objection, which you say, has been sug- 
gested to you by your learned friend, on the subject of miracles. 
Namely, 1 admit that a vast number of incredible and false 
miracles, as well as other fables, have been forged by some, 
and believed by other Catholics in every age of the church, in- 
cluding that of the apostles.* I agree with him and you in re- 
jecting the Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, the Specu- 
lum of Vincentius Belluacensis, the Saints 1 Lives of the Patri- 
cian, Metaphrastes, and scores of similar legends, stuffed as they 
are, with relations of miracles of every description. But, sir, 
are we to deny the truth of all history, because there are num- 
berless false histories ? Are we to question the four evangelists, 
because there have been several fabricated Gospels ? Most cer- 
tainly not : but we must make the best use we can of the dis- 
cernment and judgment which God has given us, to distinguish 
false accounts of every kind from those which are true ; and we 
ought, I allow, to make use of double diligence and caution, in 
examining alleged revelations and events contrary to the gene* 
ral laws of nature. 

Your friend's second objection, which impeaches the dili- 
gence, integrity and discernment of the cardinals, prelates, and 
other ecclesiastics at Rome, appointed to examine into the 
proofs of the miracles there published, shows that he is little 
acquainted with the subject he talks of. In the first place, then, 
a juridical examination of each reported miracle must be made 
in the place where it is said to have happened, and the deposi- 
tions of the several witnesses must be given upon oath ; this ex- 

• St. Jerom, in rejecting certain current fables concerning St. Paul and 
St. Thecla, mentions a priest who was deposed by St. John the Evangelist, 
for inventing similar stories. De Script. Apost. — Pope Gelasius, in the 5th t 
century, condemned several Apochryphal Gospels and Epistles, and legend* j 
of saints, ami among the latter the common ones of St. George. 



Letter XXIV. 



169 



amination is generally repeated two or three different times at 

intervals. In the next place, the examiners at Rome are un- 
questionably men of character, talents and learning, who, never- 
theless, are not permitted to pronounce upon any cure or other 
effect in nature, till they have received a regular report of phy- 
sicians and naturalists upon it. So far from being precipitate, 
it employs them whole years to come to a decision, on a few 
cases, respecting each saint ; this is printed and handed about 
among indifferent persons, previously to its being laid before 
the Pope. In short, so strict is the examination, that, according 
to an Italian proverb : It is next to a miracle to get a miracle 
proved at Rome. It is reported by F. Daubenton that an En- 
glish Protestant gentleman, meeting, in that city, with a printed 
process of forty miracles, which had been laid before the Con- 
gregation of Rites, to which the examination of them belonged, 
was so well satisfied with the respective proofs of them, as to 
express a wish that Rome would never allow of any miracles, 
but such as were as strongly proved, as these appeared to be ; 
when to his great surprise, ha was informed that every one of 
these had been rejected by Rome as not sufficiently proved ! 

Nor can I admit of the third objection of your friend, Uv 
which he rejects our miracles, on the alleged ground, that there 
was no sufficient cause for the performance of them ; for not to 
mention that many of them were performed for the conversion 
of infidels, I am bound to cry out with the apostle : Who hath 
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ! 
Rom. xi. 34. Thus much is certain from Scripture, that the 
same Deity who preserved Jonas in the whale's belly, to preach 
repentance to the Ninivites, created a gourd to shelter his head 
from the heat of the sun, Jonas iv. 6, and that as he sent fire 
from heaven to save his prophet Elias, so he caused iron to 
swim, in order to enable the son of a prophet to restore the axe 
which he had borrowed, 2 Kings vi. 6. In like manner, we are 
not to reject miracles, sufficiently proved, under pretext that 
they are mean, and unworthy the hand of Omnipotence ; for we 
are assured, that God equally turned the dust of Egypt into lice, 
as he turned the waters of it into blood, Exod. viii. 

Having lately perused the works of several of the most cele- 
brated Protestant writers, who, in defending the Scripture mira- 
cles, endeavour to invalidate the credit of those they are pleased 
to call Popish miracles, I think it just, both to your cause and 
my own, to state the chief arguments they mako use of, and the 
answers which occur to me, in refutation of them. On this 
head, i cannot help expressing my surprise and concern that 

15 



170 



Letter XXIV. 



writers of character, and some of them of high dignity, should 

have published several gross falsehoods ; not, I trust, intention* 
ally, but from the blind precipitancy and infatuation which a 
panic fear of Popery generally produces. The late learned bi- 
shop of Salisbury, Dr. J. Douglas, has borrowed from the infi- 
del Gibbon what he calls " A most satisfying proof that the mi- 
racles ascribed to the Romish saints are forgeries of an age 
posterior to that they lay claim to."* The latter says : " It 
may seem remarkable, that Bernard of Clairvaux, who records 
so many miracles of his friend St. Malachy, never takes nonce of 
his # own, which in their turn, however, are carefully related by 
his companions and disciples. In the long series of ecclesiasti- 
cal history, does there occur a single instance of a saint assert- 
ing that he himself possessed the gift of miracies ?"f Adopting 
this objection, the bishop of Salisbury says : " I think I may 
safely challenge the admirers of the Romish saints to produce 
any writing of any of them, in which a power of working mira- 
cles is claimed."^ Elsewhere he says : " From Xavier himself 
(namely, from his published letters) we are furnished, not only 
with a negative evidence against his having any miraculous 
power, but also with a positive fact, which is the strongest possi- 
ble presumption against it."§ Nevertheless, in spite of the con- 
fident assertions of these celebrated authors, it is certain (though, 
the last thing which true saints choose to speak of are their own 
supernatural favours) that several of them, when the occasion 
required it, have spoken of the miracles, of which they were the 
instruments ;|| and among the rest, those two identical saints, 
St. Bernard and St. Francis Xavier, whom Gibbon and Dr. 
Douglas instance, to prove their assertion. I have already re- 
ferred to the passages in the works of St. Bernard, where he 
speaks of his miracles as of notorious facts ; and I here again 
insert them in a note. % With respect to St. Xavier, he not only 

* The Criterion, or Rules by which the true Miracles of the New Tes- 
tament are distinguished from the spurious Miracles of Pagans and Papists, 
by John Douglas, D. D. lord bishop of Salisbury, p. 71, note. 

i Hist, of Decline and Fall, chap. xv. 

: Criterion, p. 369. § Ibid. p. 76. 

II The great St. Martin acknowledged his own miracles, since, according 
to his friend and biographer, Sulpicius, Dialogue 2, he used to say, that he 
was not endowed with so great a power of working them, after he was a 
bishop, as he had been before. 

If Addressing himself to P. Eugenius III. in answer to his enemies, who 
reproached him with the ill success of the second crusade, he says, " Sed 
dicunt forsitan isti : Unde scimus quod a Domino sermo egressus sit ? Qua 
signa tu fads' ut credamvs tibi ? non est quod ad ista ipse respondeam : 
pareeadum verecundiae meas : responde tu pro me et pro te ipso, secundum 



Letter XXIV. 



171 



mentions, in those very letters which Dr. Douglas appeals to, a 
miraculous cure, which he wrought upon a dying woman in the 
kingdom of Travancor ; but he expressly calls it A Miracle, 
and affirms that it caused the conversion of the whole village in 
which she resided.* 

A second palpable falsehood is thus confidently advanced by 
the capital enemy of miracles, Dr. Middleton ; " I might risk 
the merit of my argument upon this single point, that, after the 
apostolic times, there is not, in all history, one instance, either 
well attested, or even so much as mentioned, of any particular 
person who had ever exercised that gift (of tongues) or pre- 
tended to exercise it, in any age or country whatsoever. "f In 
case .your learned friend is disposed to take up the cause of 
Middleton, I beg to refer him to the history of St. Pacornius, 
the Egyptian abbot, and founder of the Cenobites, who, " though 
he never learned the Greek or Latin languages, yet sometimes 
miraculously spoke them," as his disciple and biographer re- 
ports,;); and to that of the renowned preacher, St. Vincent Fer- 
rer, who, having the gift of tongues, preached indifferently to 
Jews, Moors, and Christians, in their respective languages, and 
converted incredible numbers of .each of these descriptions. $ 
In like manner, the bull of the canonization of St. Lewis Ber- 
trand, A. D. 1 67 i, declares that he possessed the gift of tongues, 
by means of which he converted as many as ten thousand In- 
dians of different tribes in South America, in the space of three 
years. f| Lastly, let your friend peruse the history of the great 
apostle of the East Indies, St. Xavier, who, though he ordina- 
rily studied the languages of the several nations he announced 
the word of God to, yet, on particular occasions, he was empow- 
3red to speak those he had not learned.^" This was the case in 
Travancor, as his companion Vaz testified, so as to be enabled 
to convert and instruct there ten thousand infidels, all of whom 
he baptized with his own hand. This was the case again at 
Amanguchi, where he met with a number of Chinese merchants. 
Finally, the bull of St. Xavierius's canonization by Urban VIII. 
proclaims to the world, that this saint was illustrated with the 

ea quae vidisti et audisti." De Consid 1. ii c. 1. In like manner, writing 
to the people of Thoulouse, of his miracles wrought there, he says : *' Mora 
quidem brevis apud vos sed non infructuoso : veritate nimirum per nog 
manifestata, non solum in sermone sed etiam in virtute" Ep. 243 . 

* Epist. S. F. Xav. L. 1. Ep. iv. 

t Inquiry into Mirac. Powers, p. 120, &c. 

X Tillemont, Mem Ecc. torn. vii. 

§ See his life by Lanzano, Bishop of Lucca, also Spondanus ad An. 1403- 

U See Alban Butler's Saints' Lives, Oct. 9. 

% See Bouhour's Life of St. Xavier, translated by Dtyden, &«. 



172 



Letter XXIV. 



gift of tongues : so false is the bold ' assertion of Middletoru 
adopted in part by bishop Douglas and other Protestants, that 
" there is not, in all history, one instance, either well attested, 
or so much as mentioned, of any person who had ever exercised 
the gift of tongues, or pretended to exercise it." 

Nor is there more truth in what the bishop of Salisbury, Dr. 
Paley, &c. maintain, namely, that " the Popish miracles," as 
they insultingly call them, were not wrought to confirm any 
truth, and that no converts were made by them !* In refutation 
of this, I may again refer to the epitaph of our apostle, St. Au- 
gustin, and to the miracles of St. Bernard at Sarlat, mentioned 
above. To these instances, 1 may add the prodigy of St. Do- 
minic, who, to prove the truth of the Catholic doctrine, threw 
a book containing it into the flames, in which it remained un- 
consumed, at the same time challenging the heretics, whom he 
was addressing, to make the same experiment on their creed. f 
In like manner, St. Xavier, on a certain occasion, finding his 
words to have no effect on his Indian auditory, requested them 
to open the grave of a corpse that had been buried the day be- 
fore, when falling on his knees, he besought God to restore it to 
life for the conversion of the infidels present ; upon which, the 
dead man was instantly restored to life and perfect health, and 
the country round about received the faith. J 

It is chiefly through the sides of the apostle of India, that the 
author of The Criterion endeavours to wound the credit of the 
other saints and the Catholic church, on the point of miracles. 
Hence in the application of his three laboured rules of criticism, 
he objects, that the alleged miracles of St. Xavier were per- 
formed in the extremities of the East ; that, the accounts of them 
were published, not on the spot, but in Europe, at an immense 
distance ; and this not till thirty -five years after the saint's death. § 
A single document, of the most public nature, at once overturns 
all the three rules in regard of this saint. He died at the end 
of 1552, and on the 28th of March, 1556, a letter was sent from 
Lisbon by John III. king of Portugal, to his viceroy in India, 
Don Francisco Barretto, " enjoining him to take depositions 

• Criterion, p. 369. View of Evidences, by Dr. Paley, vol. i. p. 346. 

t Petrus Vallis Cera. Hist. Alb. Butler's Saint's Lives, Aug. 4. 

t This was one of the miracles referred to by the Paravas of Cape Com* 
orin, when the Dutch sent a ml ister from Batavia, to proselyte them to 
Protestantism. On this occasion, they answered the minister's discourse 
thus : The great father (St. Xavier) raised to life jive or six dead persons : 
dn you raise twice as many ; do you cure all our sick, and make the sea 
twice as productive of fish as it now is, and then we will listen to you- Du 
Halde's Recueil, vol. v. Berault Bercaatel's Hist. Ecc. torn, xxiii. p. 354 

§ Criter p. 78, 61, &,o. 



Letter XXIV. 



173 



upon oath, in, all parts of the Indies, where there is a probability 
of finding witnesses, not only concerning the life and manners 
of Francis Xavier, and of all the things commendably done by 
him, for the salvation and example of men, but also concerning 
the miracles, which he has wrought, both living and dead. You 
shall send these authentic instruments, with all the evidences 
and proofs, signed with your handwriting, and sealed with your 
ring, by three different conveyances."* 

But the author of The Criterion, it seems, has more positive, 
and what he calls " conclusive evidence, that during this time, 
(thirty-five years from his death,) Xavier's miracles had not been 
heard of. The evidence," he says, " I shall allege, is that of 
Acosta, (namely, Joseph Acosta,) who himself had been a mis- 
sionary among the Indians. His work, Be Procuranda Indo* 
rum Salute, was printed in 1589, that is, above thirty-seven 
years after the death of Xavier, and in it we find an express ac- 
knowledgment, that no miracles had ever been performed by 
missionaries among the Indians. Acosta was himself a Jesuit, 
and therefore, from his silence, we may infer unexceptionably, 
that between thirty and forty years had elapsed before Xavier's 
miracles were thought of."t The argument has been thought 
so conclusive, that Mr. Le Mesurier,J Hugh Farmer,^ the Rev. 
Peter Roberts, || and other Protestant writers on miracles, have 
adopted it with exultation, and it has probably contributed as 
much to the author's title of Detector Douglas, as his exposure 
of the two impostors, Lauder and Archibald Bower. But what 
will the admirers of this Detector say, if it should appear that 
Acosta barely says, that " there was not the same faculty or fa- 
cility of working miracles among the missionaries, which there 
was among the apostles ?"^[ Or rather, what will they say, if 
this same Acosta, in the very work which Doctor Douglas 
quotes, expressly asserts, that signs and miracles too numerous 
to be related, accompanied the preaching of the Gospel both in 
the East and the West Indies, in his own time /** And yet fur- 

* This letter is extant in Tursellinus, but had been published several 
years before by Emanuel Acosta, in YnsRerum in Oriente Gestarum- Dilin- 
gen, 1571. Paris, 1572. 

t Criterion, p. 73. t Bampton Lectures, p. 388. 

§ Dissertation on Miracles, p. 205. I! Observations on a Pamphlet. 

IT " Altera causa in nobis est cur apostolica prasdicatio institui omnino 
non possit apostolic e, quod miraculorum nulla facultas sit, quae apostoli 
plurima perpetrarunt" — Acosta, De Proc. 1. ii. c. 8. 

** " Et quidem dona Spiritus signa et mir acuta, quae fidei prsedicatione 
innotuerunt, his etiam temporibus, quando charitas usque adeo refrixit, en- 
numerare longum esset, turn in Orientali ilia India, turn in hac Occidental! * 
~-De Procur. I. i. c. 6, p. 141. 

IS- 



174 



Letter XXIV. 



ther, with respect so this same " Blessed Master Francis," as 

he calls him, " being a man of an apostolical life, thai so many 
and such great signs have been reported of him by numerous 
and credible witnesses, that hardly more in number or greater 
in magnitude are read of any one, except the apostles ?* Now 
all this 1 affirm Acosta does say, in the very work quoted by 
bishop Douglas, a copy of which I beg leave to inform your 
learned friend, (and through him, other learned men,) is to be 
found in the Bodleian library at Oxford, under the title which 
I insert below.f The author of The Criterion is hardly enti- 
tled to more mercy for his cavils on what Ribacleneira says 
of the miracles of St. Ignatius, than for those on what Acos- 
ta says of the miracles of St. Xavier. The fact is, the Coun- 
cil of Trent, having recently prohibited the publication of any 
new miracles, until they had been examined and approved of by 
the proper ecclesiastical authority, Ribadeneira, in the first edi- 
tion of his life of St. Ignatius, observed due caution in speaking 
of this saint's miracles : however, in that very edition, he de- 
clared that many such had been wrought by him : but these 
having subsequently been juridically proved in the process of 
the saint's canonization, his biographer published them without 
scruple, as he candidly and satisfactorily informs his readers in 
that third edition ; which edition now stands in his folio work 
of The Saints' Lives* 

* Convertamus oculos in nostri sseculi horninem, B. Magistrum Fran- 
ciscum, virum Apostolicse vitae, cujus tot et tarn magna signa referuntur 
per plurimos, cosque idoneos, testes ut vix de alio exceptis Apostolis, plura 
legantur. Quid Magister Gaspar aliique socii, &c." — De Procur. Ind. 
Saiut. 1. ii. c. 10, p 226. 

t The book is to be inquired for at the Bodleian library by the following 
quaint description: Johanna Papissa toli Orbi manifestata. 8°.c.29. art. Sold. 

t " Mihi tantum abest ut ad vitam Ignatii illustrandam miracula deesse 
videantur, ut multa eaque proestantissima judicem in media luce versari." 

The writer proceeds to mention several cures, &c. edit. 1572. 1 cannot 

close this article without pro ^sting against the disingenuity of several Pro- 
testant writers in reproaching Catholics with the impositions practised by 
the Jansenists at the tomb of Abbe Paris. In fact, who detected those 
impositions, and furnished Dr. Campbel, Dr. Douglas, &c. with arguments 
against them, except our Catholic prelates and theologians ? In like man- 
ner Catholics have reason to complain of these and other Protestant writers, 
for the manner in which they discuss the stupendous miracle that took place 
at Saragossain 1640, on one Michael Pellicer, whose leg, having been ampu- 
tated, he, by his prayers, obtained a new, natural leg, just as if this miracle 
rested on no better foundation than the slight mention which cardinal Retz 
makes of it in his Memoirs. In fact, we might have expected that learned 
divines would have known that this miracle had been amply discussed, soon 
after it happened, between Dr. Stillingfleet and the Jesuit Edward Worsley, 
in which discussion, the latter produced such attestations of the fact as it 
seems impossible not to credit—See Reason and Religion, p. 328. 



Letter XXIV. 



175 



I shall close this very long letter, with a very few words res- 
pecting a work which has lately appeared, animadverting on 
my account of The Miraculous Cure of Winefrid White* The 
writer sets out with the system of Dr. Middle-ton, by admitting 
none except Scripture miracles ; but very soon he undermines 
these miracles also, where he says : " An independent and ex- 
press divine testimony is that alone, which can assure us whe- 
ther effects are miraculous or not, except in a few cases." He 
thus reverses the proofs of Christianity, as its advocates and its 
divine Founder himself have laid them down. He adds : " No 
mortal ought to have the presumption to say, a thing is or is 
not contrary to the established laws of nature." Again he says : 
" To prove a miracle, there must be a proof of the particular 
divine agency." According to this system we may say, No 
one knows but the motion of the funeral procession, or some 
occult quality of nature, raised to life the widow of Nairn's son ! 
Mr. Roberts will have no difficulty in saying so, as he denies 
that the resurrection of the murdered man from the touch of the 
prophet Elisha's bones, 2 Kings xiii, was a miracle ! Possessed 
of this opinion, the author can readily persuade himself, that a 
curvated spine and hemiplegia, or any other disease whatever, 
may be cured, in an instant, by immersion in cold water, or by 
any thing else ; but as it is not likely that any one else will 
adopt it, I will say no more of his physical arguments on this 
subject. He next proceeds to charge W. White and her friends 
with a studied imposition ; in support of which charge, he as- 
serts, that " the church of Rome had not announced a miracle 
for many years." This only proves that his ignorance of what 
is continually going on in the church, is equal to his bigotry 
against it. The same ignorance and bigotry are manifested in 
the ridiculous story concerning Sixtus V. which he copies from 
the unprincipled Leti, as also in his account of the exploded and 
condemned book, the Taxes Cancellarice, &c.f Towards the 
conclusion of his work, he expresses a doubt whether I have 
read bishop Douglas's Criterion, though I have so frequently 
quoted it ; because, he says, if I had read it, I must have known 
that Acosta proves that St. Xavier wrought no miracles among 
the Indians, and that the same thing appears from the saint's 
own letters. Now the only thing, dear sir, which these asser- 
tions prove, is, that Mr. Roberts himself, no more than bishop 
Douglas, ever read either Acosta's work, or St. Xavier's Lefc- 

* By the Rev. Peter Roberts, rector of Llanarmon, &c. 
t Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15. 



176 



Letter XXV 



ters, notwithstanding they so frequently refer to them ; for thi 
is the only way of acquitting them of a far heavier charge. 

I am, &c J. M 

LETTER XXV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq, $e. 



on the true church being catholic. 

Dear Sir, 




In treating of this third mark of the true church, as expressed 
in our common creed, I feel my spirit sink within me, and 1 
am almost tempted to throw away my pen, in despair. For 
what chance is there of opening the eyes of candid Protestants 
to the other marks of the church, if they are capable of keeping 
them shut to this ? Every time that each of them addresses the 
God of Truth, either in solemn worship or in private devotion, 
he fails not to repeat, I believe in THE CA THOLIC church : 
and yet if I ask him the question, Are you a CATHOLIC ? 
he is sure to answer me, No, I am a PROTESTANT! Was 
there ever a more glaring instance of inconsistency and self-con- 
demnation among rational beings ! 

At the first promulgation of the Gospel, its followers were 
distinguished from the Jews by the name of Christians, as we 
learn from Scripture, Acts xi. 26. Hence the title of Catholic 
did not occur in the primitive edition of the apostles' Creed ;* 
but no sooner did heresies and schisms arise, to disturb the 
peace of the church, than there was found to be a necessity of 
discriminating the main stock of her faithful children, to whom 
the promises of Christ belonged, from those self-will choosers of 
their articles of belief, as the word heretic signifies, and those 
disobedient separatists, as the word schismatic means. For this 
purpose the title of CATHOLIC, or universal, was adopted, 
and applied to the true church and her children. Accordingly 
we find it used by the immediate disciples of the apostles, as a 
distinguishing mark of the true church. One of these was the 
illustrious martyr St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, who, writing 
to the church of Smyrna, expressly say*, that " Christ is where 
the Catholic church is." In like mannei, the same church of 
Smyrna, giving a relation of the martyrdom of their holy bishop 
St. Polycarp, who was equally a disciple of the apostles, ad- 
dresses it to " The Catholic churches."f This characteristical 

• See four collated copies of it in Dupin's Bib. Eccl. torn. L 

* Euseb Ecc. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15- 



Letter XXV. 



171 



title of the true church continued to be pointed out by the suc- 
ceeding- fathers in their writings and the acts of their councils.* 
St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, in the fourth century, gives the 
following directions to his pupils : " If you go into any city, do 
not ask merely, Where is the church, or house of God ? because 
the heretics pretend to have this ; but ask, Which is the Catholic 
church 1 because this title belongs alone to our holy mother."! 
" We," says a father of the fifth century, " are called Catholic 
Christians."! His contemporary, St. Pacian, describes himself 
as follows : " Christian is my name, Catholic is my sirname : 
by the former I am called, by the latter I am distinguished. By 
the name of Catholic, our society is distinguished from all here- 
tics"^ But there is not one of the fathers or doctors of antiquity, 
who enlarges so copiously or so pointedly on this title of the 
true church, as the great St. Augustin, who died at the end of 
the fifth century. " Many things," he says, " detain me in the 
bosom of the Catholic church — the very name of CATHOLIC 
detains me in it, which she has so happily preserved amidst the 
different heretics ; that whereas they are all desirous of being 
called Catholics, yet, if any stranger were to ask them, Which 
is the assembly of the Catholics ? none of them would dare to 
point out his own place of worship. "|| To the same purpose, he 
says elsewhere : " We must hold fast the communion of that 
church which is called Catholic, not only by her own children, 
but also by all her enemies. For heretics and schismatics, 
whether they will or not, when they are speaking of the Catholic 
church with strangers, or with their own people, call her by the 
name of Catholic ; inasmuch as they would not be understood, 
if they did not call her by the name by which all the world calls 
her."^[ In proportion to their affection for the glorious name 
of Catholic, is the aversion of these primitive doctors, to every 
ecclesiastical name or title derived from particular persons, 
countries, or opinions. " What new heresy," says St. Vincent 
of Lerins, in the sixth century, " ever sprouted up, without 
bearing the name of its founder, the date of its origin?" &c.** 
St. Justin, the philosopher and martyr, had previously made the 
same remark in the second century, with respect to the Mar- 
cionite, Valentinian, and other heretics of his time ,|f Finally, 
the nervous St. Jerom lays down the following rule m this sub- 

• SS. Justin. Clem. Alex. Appolin. 1. Nicaen. can. 8. 1. C. P. can. 7. &c. 
t Catech. 18. t Salvian de Gubern Dei. 1. iv. 

i S. Pacian, Ep. i. ad Symp. 

It Contra Epist. Fundam. c. 1. H" De Ver. Relig. c. 7. 

•* Common. Advers. Haer. c. 34. ft Advers. Tryphon. 



178 



Letter XXV. 



ject : " We must live and die in that church, which, having 

been founded by the apostles, continues down to the present 
day. Jf, then, you should hear of any Christians not deriving 
their name from Christ, but from some other founder, as the 
Marcionites, the Valentinians, &c. be persuaded that they are 
not of Christ's society, but of Antichrist's."* 

I now appeal to you, dear sir, and to the respectable friends 
who are accustomed to deliberate with you on religious subjects, 
whether these observations and arguments of the ancient fathers 
are not as strikingly true in this nineteenth century, as they 
were during the six first centuries, in which they wrote ? Is there 
not, among the rival churches, one exclusively known and 
distinguished by the name and title of THE CATHOLIC 
CHURCH, as well in England, Holland, and other countries, 
which protest against this church, as in those which adhere to 
it ? Does not this effulgent mark of the true religion so incon- 
testably belong to us, in spite of every effort to obscure it, by 
the nick names of Papists, Romanists, &c.f that the rule of St. 
Cyril and St. Augustin is as good and certain now, as it was in 
their times 1 What I mean is this : if any stranger in London, 
Edinburgh, or Amsterdam, were to ask his way to the Catholic 
chapd, I would risk my life for it, that no sober Protestant in- 
habitant would direct him to any other place of worship than to 
ours. On the other hand, it is notorious, that the different sects 
of Protestants, like the heretics and schismatics of old, are de- 
nominated either from their founders, as the Lutherans, the CaU 
vinists, the Socinians, &c. or from the countries in which they 
prevail, as the church of England, the Kirk of Scotland, the Mo* 
ravians, &c- or from some novelty in their belief or practice, as 
the Anabaptists, the Independents, the Quakers, <fcc. The first 
father of Protestants was so sensible that he and they were des- 
titute of every claim to the title of Catholic, that in translating 
the apostles' Creed into Dutch, he substituted the word Christian 
for that of Catholic. The first Lutherans did the same thing in 
their catechism, for which they are reproached by the famous 
Fulke, who, to his own confusion, proves that the true church 
of Christ must be Catholic in name, as well as in substance.^ 

I am, &c. J. M 

* Advers. Luciferan. 

t St. Gregory of Tours, speaking of the Arians, and other contemporary 
heretics of the 6th century, says : " Romanorum nomine vocitant nostras 
religionis homines." Hist. 1. xvii. c. 25. 

% On the New Testament, p. 378. 



179 



LETTER XXVI. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. <Sfc. 
on the qualities of catholicity. 

Dear Sir, 

To proceed now, from the name Catholic, to the signification 
of that name : this is to be gathered from the etymology of the 
word itself, and from the sense in which the apostolical fathers 1 
and other doctors of the church have constantly used it. It is 
derived from the Greek word KadoXixog, which means universal ; i 
and, accordingly, it has ever been employed by those writers to , 
discriminate the great body of Christians, under their legitimate 
pastors, and subsisting in all nations and all ages, from those com- , 
paratively small bodies of Christians, who, in certain places and i 
at certain times, have been separated from it. " The Catholic i 
church," says St. Augustin, " is so called, because it is spread 1 
throughout the world."* " If your church," adds he, addressing I 
certain heretics, " is Catholic, show me that it spreads its bran- 
ches throughout the world ; for such is the meaning of the word 
Catholic."f "The Catholic or universal doctrine," writes St. 
Vincent of Lerins, " is that which remains the same through all 
ages, and will continue so till the end of the world. He is a 
true Catholic who firmly adheres to the faith which he knows 
the Catholic church has universally taught from the days of 
old."J It follows, from these and other testimonies of the fa- 
thers, and from the meaning of the term itself, that th e true church 
is Catholic or Universal in three several respects, as to persons, , 
as to places, and as to time. It consists of the most numerous 1 
body of Christians ; it is more or less diffused wherever Chris- 
tianity prevails : and it has visibly existed ever since the time of 
the apostles. Hence, dear sir, when you hear me glorying in 1 
the name of Catholic, you are to understand me as equivalently I 
proclaiming thus : — I am not a Lutheran, nor a Calvinist, nor a 1 
Whitfieldite, nor a Wesleyan ; I am not of the church of Eng- 1 
land, nor of the Kirk of Scotland, nor of the consistory of Gene- 1 
va ; I can tell the place where and the time when each of these 
sects began ; and I can describe the limits within which they 
are respectively confined; but I am a member of that great Ca- 
tholic church, which was planted by Christ and his apostles, 
and has been spread throughout the world, and still constitutes 

* Epist. 170. ad S. Sever. t Contra Gaudent. 1. iii. c. I. \ 

tCommonit. The same father briefly and accurately defines the Catholia 1 
doctrine to be that which has been believed Semper et ubique et ab ommbu*, \i 



180 



Letter XXVI. 



the main stock of Christianity ; that to which al the fathers of 
antiquity and the saints of all ages have belonged on earth, and 
still belong in the bright regions above ; that which has endured 
and overcome the persecutions and heresies of eighteen centu- 
ries ; in short, that against which the gates of hell have not pre- 
vailed, and we are assured, never shall prevail. All this is im- 
plied by my title of Catholic. 

But to form a more accurate opinion of the number and diffu- 
siveness of Catholics, compared with any sect of Protestants, 
it is proper to make a slight survey of their state in the four 
quarters of the world. In Europe, then, notwithstanding the 
revolutionary persecution which the Catholic religion has en- 
dured and its enduring, it is still the religion of the several 
states of Italy, and most of the Swiss Cantons, of Piedmont, of 
France, of Spain, of Portugal, and of the islands in the Medi- 
terranean, of three parts in four of the Irish, of far the greater 
part of the Netherlands, Poland, Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, 
and the neighbouring provinces ; and, in those kingdoms and 
states in which it is not the established religion, its followers 
are very numerous, as in Holland, Russia, Turkey, the Luthe- 
ran and Calvinistic states of Germany and England. Even in 
Sweden and Denmark several Catholic congregations, with their 
respective pastors, are to be found. The whole vast continent 
of South America, inhabited by many millions of converted In- 
dians, as well as by Spaniards and Portuguese, may be said to be 
Catholic. The same may be said of the empire of Mexico, and 
the surrounding kingdoms in North America, including Califor- 
nia, Cuba, Hispaniola, &c. Canada and Louisiana are chiefly 
Catholic ; and throughout the United Provinces, the Catholic 
religion, with its several establishments, is completely protected, 
and unboundedly propagated. To say nothing of the islands of 
Africa inhabited by Catholics, such as Malta, Madeira, Cape 
Verd, the Canaries, the Azores, Mauritius, Goree, &c. there are 
numerous churches of Catholics, established, and organized un- 
der their pastors, in Egypt, Ethiopia, Algiers, Tunis, and the 
other Barbary states on the northern coast; and thence, in all 
the Portuguese settlements along the wastern coast, particularly 
at Angola and Congo. Even on the eastern coast, especially in 
the kingdom of Zanquebar and Monomotapa, are numerous 
Catholic churches. There are also numerous Catholic priests 
and many bishops, with numerous flocks, throughout the greater 
part of Asia. All the Maronites about Mount Libanus, with 
their bishops, priests and monks, are Catholics, so are many of 
the Armenians, Persians, and other Christians, of the surround- 



Letter XXVI. 



181 



ing kingdoms and provinces.* In whatever islands or states the 
Portuguese or Spanish power does prevail, or has prevailed, 
most of the inhabitants, and in some all of them have been con- 
verted. The whole population of the Philippine islands, con- 
sisting of two millions of souls, is all Catholic. The diocese of 
Goa contains four hundred thousand Catholics. In short, the 
number of Catholics is so great throughout all the peninsula of 
India within the Ganges, notwithstanding the power and influ- 
ence of Britian, as to excite the jealousy and complaints of the 
celebrated Protestant missionary, Dr. Buchanan. t In a late 
parliamentary record, it is stated that in Travancor and Cochin 
is a Catholic archbishopric and two bishoprics, one of which 
contains thirty-five thousand communicants ,\ There are nume- 
rous Catholic flocks, with their priests and even bishops, in all 
the kingdoms and states beyond the Ganges, particularly in 
Siam, Cochinchina, Tonquin, and the different provinces of the 
Chinese empire. 1 must add, on this subject, that, whereas, none 
of the great Protestant sects was ever much more numerous or 
widely spread than it is at present, the Catholic church, hereto- 
fore, prevailed in all the countries which they now collectively 
inhabit. The same may be said with respect to the Greek schis- 
matics, and in a great measure to the Mahometans. It is in 
this point of view that the Right Rev. Dr. Marsh ought to in- 
stitute his comparison between the church of England and the 
church of Rome or rather the Catholic church, in communion 
with the See af Rome. In the mean time, we are assured by his 
fellow prelate, the bishop of Lincoln, that " The articles and 
liturgy of the church of England do not correspond with the 
sentiments of the eminent reformers on the continent, or with 
the creeds of any Protestant churches there established. "|| And 
with respect to this very church, nothing would be more incon- 
sistent than to ascribe the greater part of the population of our 
two islands to it. For if the Irish Catholics, the Scotch Pres- 
byterians, the English Methodists and other Dissenters, together 
with the vast population who neither are nor profess to be of 
any religion at all, are subtracted, to what a comparatively small 
number would the church of England be reduced ! And, how 
utterly absurd would it be for her to pretend to be the Catholic 
church ! Nor are these the only subtractions to be made from 

* See Sir R. Steel's account of the Catholic Religion throughout the world, 
t See Christian Researches in Asia, p. 131. Mem. Ecci. 
4 Dr. Kerr's Letter, quoted in the late parliamentary Report on th« 
Catholic Question, p. 487. 
§ See his Comparative View of the Churches of England and Ronoe ! 
U Charge, in 1803. 



182 



Letter XXVI 



her numbers, and indeed from those of all other Christian soct 

eties, divided from the true church ; since, there being but one 
baptism, all the young children who have been baptized in them, 
and all invincibly ignorant Christians, who exteriorly adhere to 
them, really belong to the Catholic church, as I have shown 
above. 

In finishing this subject, 1 shall quote a passage from St. Au- 
gustin, which is as applicable to the sectaries of this age as it 
was to those of the age in which he lived. " There are here- 
tics every where, but not the same heretics every where. For 
there is one sort in Africa, another sort in the East, a third sort 
in Egypt, and the fourth sort in Mesopotamia, being different in 
different countries, though all produced by the same mother, 
namely, pride. Thus also the faithful are all born of one com- 
mon mother, the Catholic church ; and though they are every 
where dispersed, they are every where the same."* 

But it is still more necessary that the true church should be 
Catholic or Universal as to time than as to numbers or to place. 
If there ever was a period since her foundation, in which she 
has failed, by teaching or promoting error or vice, then the pro- 
mises of the Almighty in favour of the seed of David and the 
kingdom of the Messiah, in the Book of Psalms,f and in those 
of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel, have failed \\ then the more 
explicit promises of Christ, concerning this church and her 
pastors have failed then the Creed itself, which is the subject 
of our present discussion, has been false. || On this point, learn- 
ed Protestants have been wonderfully embarrassed, and have in- 
volved themselves in the most palpable contradictions. A great 
proportion of them have maintained that the church, in past 
ages, totally failed, and became the synagogue of satan, and 
that its head pastor, the bishop of Rome, was and is the man of 
sin, the identical Antichrist : but they have never been able to 
settle among themselves, when this most remarkable of all revo- 
lutions since the world began, actually took place ; or who were 
the authors, and who the opposers of it ; or by what strange 
means the former prevailed on so many millions of people of 
different nations, languages, and interests, throughout Christen- 
dom, to give up the supposed pure religion, which they had 
learned from their fathers, and to embrace a pretended new and 
false system, which its adversaries now call Popery ! In a 
word, there is no way of accounting for the pretended change 

• Lib. de Pact. c. 8. t Ps lxxxviii. alias lxxxix. &c. 

X Is. c. liv. lix. Jerem. xxxi. 31. Dan. ii. 44. 

$ Mat. xvi. 18.— xxviii. 19, 20. U I believe in the holy Catholic churck. 



Letter XXVI. 



183 



3f religion, at whatever period this may be fixed, but by sup- 
posing, as I have said, that the-whole collection of Christians, 
on some one night, went to bed Protestants, and awoke the next 
morning Papists ! * » 

That the church in communion with the See of Rome is the 
original, as well as the most numerous church, is evident in 
several points of view. The stone cries out of the wall, as the 
prophet expresses it,* in testimony of this. I mean that our ( 
venerable cathedrals and other stone churches, built by Catho- 
lic hands and for the Catholic worship, so as to resist, in some ' 
sort, that which is now performed in them, proclaim that ours 1 
is the ancient and original church. This is still more clear 1 
from the ecclesiastical historians of our own as well as other 1 
nations. Venerable Bede, in particular, bears witness,t that 1 
the Roman missionary, St. Augustin of Canterbury, and his 1 
companions, converted our Saxon ancestors, at the end of the 1 
sixth century, to the belief of the Pope's supremacy, transub- 
stantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, purgatory, the invocation 
of saints, and the other Catholic doctrines and practices, as : 
learned Protestants in general agree. \ Now, as these mission- ; 
aries were found to be of the same faith and religion, not only ' 
with the Irish, Picts, and Scots, who were converted almost two 
centrries before them, but also with the Britons or Welsh, who '. 
became Christians in the second century, so as only to differ 
from them about the time of keeping Easter and a few other un- 
essential points, this circumstance alone proves the Catholic re- 
ligion to have been that of the church in the aforesaid early 
^ge. Still the most demonstrative proofs of the antiquity and ' 
originality of our religion, are gathered from comparing it with 1 
that contained in the works of the ancient fathers. An attempt 
was made, during a certain period, by some eminent Protest- 
ants, especially in this country, to press the fathers into their ' 
service. Among these, bishop Jewel of Sarum, was the most con- 
spicuous. He not only boasted that those venerable witnesses 1 
of the primitive doctrine were generally on his side, but also 1 
published the following challenge to the Catholics : " Let them 1 
show me but one only father, one doctor, one sentence, two 
:ines, and the field is theirs. "§ However, this his vain boast- 
ing, or rather deliberate impugning of the known truth, only 
served to scandalize sober and learned Protestants, and among 
others, his biographer, Dr. Humphreys, who complains that he 

• Habak. ii. 11. t Hist. Eccles. j 

t Bishop Bale. Humphreys the Centur. of Magdeb. &lc 

% Jewel's Sermon at St. Paul's Cross; likewise his Answers to Dr. Cole. \ 



134 



Utter XXVII. 



thereby " Gave a scope to the Papists, and spoiled himself and 
the Protestant church."* In fact, this hypocrisy, joined with 
his shameful falsification of the fathers, in quoting them, occa- 
sioned the conversion of a beneficed clergyman, and one of the 
ablest writers of his age, Dr. W. Reynolds. t Most Protestant 
writers of later times| follow the late Dr. Middleton, and Lu- 
ther himself, in giving up the ancient fathers to the Catholics 
without reserve, and thereby the faith of the Christian church 
during the six first centuries, of which faith these fathers were 
the witnesses and the teachers. Among other passages to this 
purpose, the above named doctor writes as follows : " Every 
one must see what a resemblance the principles and practice of 
the fourth century bear to the present rites of the Popish church."^ 
Thus, by the confession of her most learned adversaries our 
church is not less CATHOLIC or Universal, as to time, than 
she is with respect to name, locality, and numbers. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXVII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
objections answered. 

Dear Sir, 

I have received the letter written by your visiter, the Rev, 
Joshua Clark, B. D. at the request, as he states, of certain mem- 
bers of your society, animadverting on my last to you ; an an- 
swer to which letter I am requested to address to you. The 
Reverned gentleman's arguments are by no means consistent 
one with another ; for like other determined controvertists, he 
attacks his adversary with every kind of weapon that comes to 
his hand, in the hopes per fas et nefas of demolishing him. He 
maintains, in the first place, that, though Protestantism was not 
visible before it was unveiled by Luther, it subsisted in the 
hearts of the true faithful, ever since the days of the apostles, 
and that the believers in it constituted the real primitive Catho- 
lic church. To this groundless assumption I answer, that an 
invisible church is no church at all ; that the idea of such a 
church is at variance with the predictions of the prophets re- 

* Life of Jewel, quoted by Walsingham, in his invaluable Search into 

Matters of Religion, p. 172. 
t Dodd's Church Hist. vol. ii. 

t See the acknowledgment, on this head, of the learned Protettanto, 
Obretcht, Dumoulin, and Causabon. 
§ Inquiry into miracles, Introd. p. 45. 



Letter XXVII. 



185 



specting Jesus Christ's future church, where they describe it as 
» mountain on the top of mountains, Is. ii. 2. Mic. iv. 2. arid as 
a city, whose watchmen shall never hold their peace, Is. lxii. 6. 
and, indeed, with the injunction of our Lord himself, to tell the 
church, Mat. xviii. 17, in a certain case, which he mentions. It 
is no less repugnant to the declaration of Luther, who says of 
himself, " At first I stood alone :"* and to that of Calvin, who 
says, " The first Protestants were obliged to break off from the 
whole world ;"f as also to that of the church of England in her 
Homilies, where she says, " Laity and clergy, learned and un- 
learned, all ages, sects and degrees, have been drowned in 
abominable, idolatry, most detested by God and damnable to 
man, for eight hundred years and more. "J As to the argument 
in favour of an invisible church, drawn from 1 Kings xix. 18. 
where the Almighty tells Elijah, / have left me seven thousand 
in Israel, whose knees have not been bowed to Baal ; our divines 
fail not to observe, that however invisible the church of the Old 
Law was in the schismatical kingdom of Israel, at the time here 
spoken of, it was most conspicuous and flourishing in its proper 
seat, the kingdom of Judah, under the pious king Josaphat Mr. 
Clark's second argument is borrowed from Dr. Porteus, and 
consists in a mere quibble. In answer to the question ; " Where 
was the Protestant religion before Luther ?" this prelate replies, 
" It was just where it is now : only that then it was corrupted 
with many sinful errors, from which it is now reformed."^ But 
this is to fall back into the refuted system of an invisible church ; 
it is also to contradict the Homilies, or else it is to confess the 
real truth, that Protestancy had no existence at all before the 
sixteenth century. 

The Reverend gentleman next maintains, on quite opposite 
grounds, that there have been large and visible societies of Protest- 
ants, as he calls them, who have stood in opposition to the church 
of Rome, in all past ages. True, there have been heretics and 
schismatics of one kind or other during all that time, from Si- 
mon Magus, down to Martin Luther ; many sects of whom, such 
as the Arians, the Nestorians, the Eutychians, the Monotholites, 
the Albigenses, the Wickliffites, and the Hussites, have been 
exceedingly numerous and powerful in their turns, though most 
of them now have dwindled away to nothing : but observe, that 
none of the ancient heretics held the doctrines of any descrip 
lion of modern Protestants, and all of them maintained doctrines 
and practices which modern Protestants reprobate, as much as 

• Opera. Pref. t Epist. 171. * Perils of Idolatry, p. iii, 

§ Confut. p. 79 

16* 



186 



Letter XXVII. 



Catholics do. Thus the Albigenses were real Manicheans, 

holding two First Principles, or Deities, attributing the Old Tes- 
tament, the propagation of the human species, to Satan, and act- 
ing up to these diabolical maxims.* The Wickliffites and Hus- 
sites were the levelling and sanguinary Jacobins of the times 
and countries in which they lived ;f in other respects these two 
-sect* were Catholics, professing their belief in the seven sacra- 
men .s, the mass, the invocation of saints, purgatory, &c. If, 
then, your Reverend visiter is disposed to admit such company 
into his religious communion, merely because they protested 
against the supremacy of the Pope, and some other Catholic 
tenets, he must equally admit Jews, Mahometans, and Pagans 
into it, <(nd acknowledge them to be equally Protestants with 
himself. 

Your Reverend visiter concludes his letter with a long disser- 
tation, in which he endavours to show, that however we Catho- 
lics may boast of the antiquity and perpetuity of our church in 
past times, our triumphs must soon cease by the extinction of 
this church, in consequence of the persecution now carrying on 
against it in France, and other parts of the continent,^ and also 
from the preponderance of the Protestant power in Europe, and 
particularly that of our own country, which, he says, is nearly 
as much interested in the extirpation of Popery as of Jacobin- 
ism. My answer is this : I see and bewail the anti- Catholic 
persecution which has been, and is carried on in France and its 
dependent states, where to decatholicize is the avowed order of 
the day. This was preceded by the less sanguinary, though 
equally anti-Catholic persecution of the emperor Joseph II. and 
his relatives in Germany and Italy. 1 hear the exultations and 
menaces on this account, of the Wranghams, De Coetlegons, 
Towsons, Bichenos, Ketts, Fabers, Daubenys, and a crowd of 
other declamatory preachers and writers, some of whom pro- 
claim that the Romish Babylon is on the point of falling, and 
others that she is actually fallen. In the mean time, though 
more living branches of the mystical vine should be cut off by 
the sword, and more rotten branches should fall off, from their 
own decay. § I am not at all fearful for the life of the tree itself; 

* See an account of them, and the authorities on which this rests, in 

Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV. t Ibid. 

t Namely, in 1802. 

§ Since the present letter was written, many circumstances have occur- 
iad to show the mistaken politics of our rulers, in endeavouring to weaken 
and supplant the religion of their truly loyal and conscientious Catholic 
subjects. Among other measures for this purpose, may be mentioned the 
late instructions sent to the governor of Canada, which Catholic province 



Letter XXV IL 



187 



sin.ce the divine veracity is pledged for its safety, as long as the 
sun and moon shall endure, Ps. lxxxix. ; and since the experi- 
ence of eighteen centuries has confirmed our faith in these divine 
promises. During this long interval, kingdoms and empires 
have risen and fallen, the inhabitants of every country have been 1 
repeatedly changed ; in short, every thing has changed except 
the doctrine and jurisdiction of the Catholic church, which are ! 
precisely the same now as Christ and his apostles left them. In , 
vain did Pagan Rome, during three centuries, exert its force to , 
drown her in her own blood ; in vain did Arianism and other l 
heresies sap her foundations, during two centuries more ; in - 
vain did hordes of barbarians, from the north, and of Mahome- 
tans, from the south, labour to overwhelm her ; in vain did Lu- | 
ther swear that he himself would be her death ;* she has sur- | 
vived these, and numerous other enemies equally redoubtable ; , 
and she will survive even the fury and machinations of anti-chris- | 
tianphilosopy, though directed against her exclusively : for not a ■ 
drop of Protestant blood has been shed in this impious persecu- , 
tion. Nor is that church which, in a single kingdom, the very ■ 
head quarters of infidelity, could at once furnish twenty-four : 
thousand martyrs and sixty thousand voluntary exiles, in defence 
of her faith, so likely to sink under external violence, or inter- 
nal weakness, as your Rev. visiter supposes. Alluding to the 
then recent attempt of the emperor Julian to falsify the prophe 
cy of Daniel by rebuilding the Jewish temple, St. John Chry- ; 
sostom exclaimed, " Behold the temple of Jerusalem ; God has , 
destroyed it, and have men been able to restore it ? Behold the i 
church of Christ ; God has built it, have men been able to de- 

alone remained faithful at the time of trial, when all the Protestant prov- 
inces abjured their allegiance. To the same intent may be cited the letter j 
of Dr. Kerr, senior chaplain of fort St. George, quoted in the late Parlia- ' 
mentary Report. By this it appears that the Catholics in that province i 
generally converted about three hundred Infidels to Christianity every | 
year, and that there was a prospect of their converting many of the Hindoo 
chiefs, but that our government set its face against these conversions. Thus 1 
is the infamous worship of Juggernaut iiself preferred to the religion which ; 
converted and civilized our ancestors. Juggernaut, as Dr. Buchanan informs 
us, is a huge idol, carved with the most obscene figures round it, and pub- 
licly worshipped before hundreds of thousands with obscene songs and un- 
natural rites, too gross to be described. It is placed on a carriage, under 
the wheels of which great numbers of its votaries are encouraged to throw 
themselves in order to be crushed to death by them. Now this internal 
worship is not barely permitted, but even supported by our government in \ 
India, as it takes a tribute from each individual who is present at it, and 1 
likewise defrays the expenses of it, to the amount, says Dr. Buchanan, of n 
8,700£. annually, including the keep of the prostitutes, &c. 

* Luther ordered this epitaph to be engraved on bis tomb: Pestis eram 
tivens, moriens ero mors bua, Papa, 



188 



Letter XXVIII. 



stroy it ?" Should the Almighty permit such a persecution to 
befall any of the Protestant communions, as we have beheld 
raging against the Catholic church on the continent, does your 
visiter really believe they will exhibit the same constancy, in 
suffering for their respective tenets, that she has shown in de- 
fence of hers ? In fact ; for what tenets should their members 
suffer exile and death, since, without persecution, they have all, 
in a manner, abandoned their original creeds, from the uncer- 
tainty of their rule of faith, and their own natural mutability ? 
Human laws and premiums may preserve the exterior appear- 
ance, or mere carcass of a church, as one of your divines expres- 
ses it ; but, if the pastors and doctors of it should demonstrate 
by their publications that they no longer maintain her original 
fundamental articles, can we avoid subscribing to the opinion, 
expressed by a late dignitary, that " the church in question, pro- 
perly so called, is not in existence ?"* 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXVIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. fp. 

ON THE APOSTOLICITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 

Dear Sir, 

The last of the four marks of the church, mentioned in our 
common Creed, is Apostolicity. We each of us declare, in 
our solemn worship, / believe in one, holy, Catholic and APOS- 
TOLICAL church. Christ's last commission to his apostles was 
this : Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Fa- 
ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost : and, lo ! I am with 
you always, even unto THE END OF THE WORLD. Mat. 
xxviii. 20. Now the event has proved, as I have already ob- 
served, that the apostles, themselves, were only to live the ordi- 
nary term of man's life ; therefore, the commission of preaching 
and ministering, together with the promise of the Divine assist- 
ance, regards the successors of the apostles, no less than the 
apostles themselves. This proves that there must have been an 
uninterrupted series of such successors of the apostles in every 
age since their time, that is to say, successors to their doctrine, 
to their jurisdiction, to their orders, and to their mission. Hence 
it follows that no religious society whatever, which cannot trace 
its succession, in these four points, up to the apostles, has any 
claim to the characteristic title, APOSTOLICAL. 

* Confessional, p. 244. 



/ 



Letter XXVIIr. 



189 



Conformably with what is here laid down, we find the fathers 
and ecclesiastical doctors of every age referring to this mark of 
apostolical succession, as demonstrative of their belonging to the 
true church of Christ. St. Irenaeus of Lyons, the disciple of St. 
Polycarp, who himself appears to have been consecrated by St. 
John the evangelist, repeatedly urges this argument against his 
contemporary heretics. " We can .count up," he says, " those 
who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles and 
their successors down to us, Hone of whom taught this doctrine. 
But as it would be tedious to enumerate the succession of Bishops 
in the different churches, we refer you to the tradition of that 
greatest, most ancient, and universally known church, founded 
at Rome by St. Peter and St. Paul, and which has been preser- 
ved there through the succession of its bishops down to the pre- 
sent time." He then recites the names of the several Popes 
down to Eleutherius, who was then living * Tertullian, who 
also flourished in the same century, argues in the same manner, 
and challenges certain heretics, in these terms ; " Let them pro- 
duce the origin of their church ; let them display the succession 
of their bishops, so that the first of them may appear to have 
been ordained by an apostolic man, who persevered in their com- 
munion." He then gives a list of the pontiffs in the Roman See, 
and concludes as follows : " Let the Heretics feign any thing 
like this."f The great St. Augustin, who wrote in the fifth cen- 
tury, among other motives of credibility in favour of the Catho- 
lic religion, mentions the one in question : " I am kept in this 
church," he says, " by the succession of prelates from St. Peter, 
to whom the Lord committed the care of his sheep, down to the 
present bishop,"! In like manner St. Optatus, writing against 
the Donatists, enumerates all the Popes from St. Peter down to 
the then living Pope, Siricius, " with whom," he says, " we and 
all the world are united in communion. Do you, Donatists, now 
give the history of your episcopal ministry. "§ In fact, this 
mode of proving the Catholic church to be apostolical is conform- 
able to common sense and constant usage. If a prince is de- 
sirous of showing his title to a throne, or a nobleman or gentle- 
man his claim to an estate, he fails not to exhibit his genealogi- 
cal table, and to trace his pedigree up to some personage whose 
right to it was unquestionable. 1 shall adopt the same precise 
method on the present occasion, by sending your society a slight 
sketch of our apostolical tree, by which they will see, at a glance, 

* Lib. iii. advers. Haer. c. iii. 

t " Fingant tale, aliquid haeretici." Prescript. 

t Contra. Epiat Fundarn. § Contra Parmen. lib. ti. 



190 



Letter XXVIIL 



an abridgment of the succession of our chief bishops in the apos 
tolical See ^ of Rome, from St. Peter up to the present edifying 
^ontiff, Pius VII, as likewise that of other illustrious doctors, 
prelates and saints, who have defended the apostolical doctrine 
by their preaching and writings, or who have illustrated it by 
their lives. They will also see the fulfilment of Christ's in- 
junction to the apostles and their successors in the conver- 
sion of nations and people to his faith and church. Lastly, they 
will behold the unhappy series of heretics and schismatics, who, 
in different ages, have fallen off from the doctrine or communion 
of the apostolic church. But as it is impossible, in so narrow a 
compass as the present sheet, to give the names of all the Popes, 
or to exhibit the other particulars here mentioned in the distinct 
and detailed maimer which the subject seems to require, I will 
try to supply the deficiency by the subjoined copious note.* 

* "Within the first century from the birth of Christ, this long expected 
Messiah founded the kingdom of' his holy church in Judaea, and chose his 
apostles to propagate the same throughout the earth, over whom he appointed 
Simon, as the centre of union and head pastor charging him to feed his 
whole flock, sheep as well as lambs, giving him the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven, and changing his name into that of PETER, or ROCK; add- 
ing, on this rock I will build my church. Thus dignified, St. Peter first es- 
tablished his See at Antioch, the head city of Asia, whence he sent his dis- 
ciple St. Mark to establish and govern the See of Alexandria, the head 
city of Africa. He afterwards removed his own See to Rome, the capital 
of -Europe and the world. Here, having, with St. Paul, sealed the Gospel 
with his blood, he transmitted his prerogative to St. Linus, from whom it 
descended in succession to St. Cletus and St. Clement. Among the other 
illustrious doctors of this age are to be reckoned, first, the other apostles, 
then SS. Mark, Luke, Barnaby, Timothy, Titus, Hermas, Ignatius, bishop 
of Antioch, and Polycarp of Smyrna. From the few remaining writings of 
these may be gathered the necessity of unity and submission to bishops, 
Vadition, the real presence, the sacrifice of the mass, veneration for relics, 
Jtc. In this age, churches were founded, besides the above-mentioned 
j>laces, in Samaria, throughout lesser Asia, in Armenia, India, Greece, 
Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain, and Gaul; in this apostolical age, also, and 
as it were under the eyes of the apostles, different proud innovators 
pretended to reform, the doctrine which they taught. Among these were 
Simon the Magician, Hymeneus and Philetus, the incontinent Nicolaites, 
Cerinthus, Ebion, ami Meander. 

CENT. II. 

The succession of chief pastors in the chair of Peter was kept up through 
this century by the following Popes, who were also, for the most part, mar- 
tyrs : Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander I, Xystus I, Telesphorus, Hyginus, 
Pius I, Anicetus, Soter, Eleutherius, who sent Fugatius and Damianus to 
convert the Britons, and Victor I, who exerted his authority against cer* 
tain Asiatic bishops for keeping Easter at an undue time. The truth ot 
Christianity was defended, in this age, by the apologists Quadratus, Aris- 
tides, Melito, and Justin, the philosopher and martyr; and the rising here- 
sies of Valeutinian, Marcion, and Carp^ rates, were confounded by the 



Letter XXVIII. 



m 



I do not, dear sir, pretend to exhibit a nistory of the church, 
nor even a regular epitome of it, in the present note, any more 

bishops Dionysius of Corinth, and Theophylus of Antioch, in the east, and 
by St. Irenaeus and Tertullian, in the west. In the mean time, the Catho- 
lic church was more widely spread, through Gaul, Germany, Scythia, Af- 
rica, and India, besides Britain. 

CENT. Ilk 

The Popes who presided over the church, in the third age, were all 
eminent for their sanctity, and almost all of them martyrs. Their names 
are Zephyrinus, Calixtus I, Urban I, Pontianus, Antherus, Fabian, Corne- i 
lius, Lucius, Stephen I, Xystus II, Dionysius, Felix I, Etuychian, Caius, 
and Marcellinus. The most celebrated doctors of this age were St. Cle- , 
ment of Alexandria, Origen, Minutius Felix, St. Cyprian, St. Hypolitus, 
both martyrs, and St. Gregory, bishop, surnamed for his miracles Thau ma- i 
turgus. At this time Arabia, the Belgic Provinces, and many districts of i 
Gaul, were almost wholly converted : while Paul of Samosata, for deny- , 
ing the divinity of Christ, Sabellus, for denying the distinction of persons 
in the B. Trinity, and Novatus, for denying the power of the church to 
remit sins, with Manes, who believed in two deities, were cut off as rotten ' 
branches from the Apostolic tree. 

CENT. IV. 

St. Marcellus, the first Pope in this century, died through the hardships 
of imprisonment for the faith. After him came Eusebius, Melchiades, 
Silvester, under whom the Councils of Aries, against the Donatists, and ol 
Nice, against the Arians, were held, Marcus Julius, in whose time the 
right of appeal to the Roman See was confirmed, Liberius, and Damasus. 
The church, which hitherto had been generally persecuted by the Roman 
emperors, was, in this age, alternately protected and oppressed by them. 
In the mean time, her numbers were prodigiously increased by conversions 
throughout the Roman empire, and also in Armenia, Iberia, and Abyssinia, 
and her faith was invincibly maintained by St- Athanasius, St. Hilary, St. 
Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, St. Ambrose of Milan, &c. against the I 
Arians, who opposed the divinity of Christ, the Macedonians, who opposed 
that of the Holy Ghost, the Aerians, who impugned episcopacy, fastiag and 
prayers for the dead, and other new heretics and schismatics. 

CENT. V. 

During this age, the perils and sufferings of the church were great; but 
so also were the resources and victories by which her Divine Founder sup- 
ported her. On one hand the Roman empire, that fourth great Dynasty, ' 
compared by Daniel to iron, was broken to pieces by numberless hordes oi i 
Goths, Vandals, Huns, Burgundians, Franks and Saxons, who came pour- 
ing in upon the civilized world, and seemed to be on the point of over- 
whelming arts, sciences, laws, and religion, in one^ undistingu'shed ruin. 
On the other, hand, various classes of powerful and subtil hereti s strained 
every nerve to corrupt the apostolical doctrine, and to interrupt the course 
of the apostles' successors. Among these, the Nestorians denied the union 
of Christ's divine and human natures; the Eutychians confounded them 
together; the Pelagians denied the necessity of divine grace, and the fol- 
lowers of Vigilantius scoffed at celibacy, prayers to the saints, and venera- I 
tion for their relics. Against these innovators a train of illustrious pon- ' 
tins and holy fathers opposed themselves, with invincible fortitude aud de« 
eided 6UOCUS8. The Popes were Innocent I, Zosimus, Boniface L, Cela* 



192 



Letter XXVIII. 



than in the apostolical tree ; nevertheless, either of these will 

give you and your respectable society, a sufficient idea of the 

tin I, who presided by his legates in the Council of Ephesus, Xystus III. 
Leo the Great, who presided in that of Chaicedon, Hilarius, Simplicius, 
Felix III, Gelasius I, Anastacius II, and Symachus. Their zeal was well 
seconded by some of the brightest ornaments of orthodoxy and literature 
who ever illustrated the church, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerom, St. Au- 
gustin, St. Gregory of Nyssa, &c. By their means, and those of other 
apostolic Catholics, not only were the enemies of the church refuted, but 
also her bounds greatly enlarged by the conversion of the Franks, with 
their king, Clovis, of the Scotch and the Irish. The apostle of the former 
was St. Palladius, and of the latter St. Patrick, both commissioned by the 
See of Rome. 

CENT. VI. 

The church had to combat with infidels, hereties, and worldly politicians, 
in this as in other ages; but failed not to receive the accustomed proofs ot 
the divine protection, amidst her dangers. The chief bishops succeeded 
each other in the following order: Hormisdas, St. John I, who. died a pris- 
oner for the faith, Felix IV, Boniface II, John II, Agapetus I, St. Silverius, 
who died in exile for the unity of the church, Vigilius, Pelagius I, John 
III, Benedict I, Pelagius II, and St. Gregory the Great, a name which 
ought to be engraved on the heart of every Englishman who knows how to 
value the benefits of Christianity, since it was he who first undertook to 
preach the Gospel to our Saxon ancestors, and, when he was prevented by 
force from doing this, sent his deputies, St. Augustin and his companions, 
on this apostolical errand. Other beneficial lights of this age were St. 
Fulgentius of Ruspa, Cesarius of Aries, Lupus, Germanus, Severus, 
Gregory of Tours, our venerable Gildas, and the great patriarch of the 
monks, St. Benedict. The chief heretics who disturbed the peace of the 
church were the Acephali and Jacobites, both branches of Eutychianism, 
the Tritheists, the powerful supporters of the Three Chapters, Severus, 
Eleurus, Mongus, Athimius, and Acacius. A more terrible scourge, how- 
ever, than these, or than any other which the church had yet felt, God per- 
mitted in this age to fall upon her, in the rapid progress of the imposter 
Mahomet; what however she lost in some quarters, was made up to her in 
others, by the suppression of Arianism among the Visigoths of Spain and 
among the Ostrogoths of Italy, and by the conversion of the Lazes, Axu- 
mites, and Southern English. 

CENT. VII. 

The Popes in this century are most of them honoured for their sanctity, 
namely, Sabinianus, Boniface III, Boniface IV, Deusdedit, Boniface V, 
Honotrius I, Severinus, John IV, Theodorus, Martin I, who died in exile, 
in defence of the faith, Eugenius I, Vitalianus, Domnus I, Agatho, who 
presided, by his legates, in the sixth General Council, held against the 
Monotholites, L^eo II, Benedict If, John V, Conon, and Sergius I. Other 
contemporary doctors and saints were St Sophronius and St. John the al- 
moner, bishops, and St. Maximus, martyr, in the East. SS. Isidore, Ilde- 
fonsus and Eugenius, in Spain, SS. Amand, Eligius, Omer and Owen, in 
France, and SS. Paulinus, Wilfrid, Birinus, Felix, Chad, Aidan and Cuth- 
bert, in England. The East, at this time, was distracted by the Monotholite 
heretics, and in some parts, by the Paulicians, who revived the detestable 
heresy of the Manicheans, but most of all by the sanguinary course of the 
Mahometans, who overran the most fertile and civilized countries of Asia 



Letter XXVIII. 



193 



uninterrupted succession of supreme pastors, which has subsisted 

in the See of Rome from St. Peter, whom Christ made head of 

and Africa, and put a stop to the apostolical succession in the primitive 
Sees of the East. To compensate for these losses, the church spread her 
roots wide in the northern regions. The whole Heptarchy of England be- 
came Christian, and diffused the sweet odour of Christ throughout the West. 
Hence issued SS. Willibord and Swibert to convert Holland and Frize- 
land, and the two brothers, of the name of Ewald, who confirmed their ! 
doctrine with their blood. The martyr St. Killian, who converted Franco- 
nia, was an Irishman; but all these apostolical men received their com- 
mission from the chair of St. Peter. 

CENT. VIIL i 
The apostolic succession of the See of Rome was kept up in this age by 
John VI, John VII, Sisinnius, Constantine, Gregory II, Gregory III, Za"- i 
charias, Stephen II, Stephen III, Paul I, Adrian I, who presided by his le- i 
gates in the seventh general council against the Iconoclasts, and Leo III. , 
The Saracens now crossed the straits of Gibraltar and nearly overran 
Spain, making numerous martyrs; while Felix and Elipand broached er- 
rors in the West, nearly resembling those of Nestorius. The most signal ' 
defenders of the orthodox doctrine were St. Germanus Patriarch, St. John 
Damascene, Paul the deacon, Ven. Bede, St. Aldhelm, St. Willibald, Al- 
cuin, St. Boniface, bishop and martyr, and St. Lullus. Most of these were 
Englishmen, and, by their means, Hessia, Thuringia, Saxony, and other 
provinces, were added to the Catholic church. 

CENT. IX. 

The apostolic tree, in this age, was agitated by storms more violent thao 
usual; but, being refreshed with the dew of grace from above, held fast by 
its roots. Claudius of Turin, united in one system the heresies of Nesto- 
rius, Vigilantius, and the Iconoclasts, while Gotescale laboured to infect 
the church with predestinarianism. A more severe blow, to her, however, 
was the Greek schism, occasioned by the resentment and ambition of the 
hypocrite, Photius. But the greatest danger of all arose from the over- i 
bearing power of the Anti-christian musselmen, who now carried their 
arms into Sicily, France, and Italy, and became masters, for a time, of the 
holy See itself. Tha succession of its bishops, however, continued unin- 
terrupted, in the following order: Stephen V, Pascal I, Eugenius JI, Va- 1 
lentin, Gregory IV, Sergius II, Leo. IV, Benedict III, Nicholas >, Adrian I 
II, who presided by his legates in the eighth general council. John VIII, , 
Marinus, Adrian III, Stephen VI, Formo.sus, Stephen VII, and Romanus 
Other props of the church, in this age, were Theodore the Studite, St. Ig- 1 
natius, the legitimate patriarch of C. P. Rabanus, Hincmar, and Agobard, 1 
French bishops, together with our countrymen. St. Swithun, Neot, Grim- I 
bald, Alfred, and Edmund. In this age St. Ansgarius converted the peo- 
ple of Holstein, and SS. Cyril and Methodius the Sclavonians, Moravians, 
and Bohemians, by virtue of a commission from Pope Adrian II. 

CENT. X. 

The several Popes during this century were Theodore U, John IX, Ben« 
edict IV. Leo V, Christopher, Sergius III, Anastasius, Lando, John X, Leo 
VI, Stephen VIII, John XI, Leo VII, Stephen IX, Martin II, Agapetus II, ,: 
John XII, Benedict V, John XIII, Domnus II, Benedict VII, John XIV, ' 
John XV, and Gregory V. This age is generally considered as the least f 
ttlightened by piety and literature of the whole number Its greatest dis- 
rate, however, arose from the misconduct of several of the above-mea* 



194 



Letter XXVIIL 



his church, up to the present Pope, Pius VII. And this attri- 
bute of perpetual succession, you are, dear sir, to observe, is 

tioned pontiffs, owing to the prevalence of civil factions at Rome, which 
obstructed the freedom of canonical election: yet, in this list of names, 
there are ten or twelve, which do honour to the papal calendar, and even 
those who disgraced it by their lives, performed their public duty, in pre- 
serving the faith and unity of the church, irreproachably. In the mean 
tidie a crowd of holy bishops and other saints, worthy the age of the apos- 
tles, adorned most parts of the church, which continued to be augmented 
by numerous conversions. In Italy SS. Peter Damian, Romuald, Nilus, 
and Rathier, bishop of Verona, adorned the church with their sanctity and 
talents, as did the holy prelates, Ulric, Wolfgang, and Bruno, in Germany, 
and Odo, Dunstan, Oswald, and Ethelwold, in England. At this time St. 
Adelbert, bishop of Pi ague, converted the Poles by his preaching and his 
blood; the Danes were converted by St. Poppo, the Swedes, by St. Sigi- 
frid, an Englishman, the people of lesser Russia by SS. Bruno and Boni- 
face, and the Muscovites by missionaries sent from Greece, but at a time 
when that country was in communion with the See of Rome. 

DENT. XI. 

During this age the vessel of Peter was steered by several able and vir- 
tuous pontiffs. Silvester II was esteemed a prodigy of learning and talents. 
After him came John XVIII, John XIX, Sergius.IV, Benedict VIII, John 
XX, Benedict IX, Gregory VI, Clement II, Damascus II, Leo IX, who 
has deservedly been reckoned among the saints, Victor II, Stephen X. 
Nicholas II, Alexander II, Gregory VII, who is also canonized, Victor Til, 
and Urban II. Other defenders of virtue and religion, in this age, were St. 
Elphege and Lanfranc, archbishops of Canterbury, the prelates Burcard of 
of Worms, Fulbert and Ivo of Chartres, Odilo an abbot, Alger a monk, 
Guitmund and Theophylactus. The crown, also, was now adorned with 
saints equally signal for their virtue and orthodoxy. In England shone St. 
Edward the confessor; in Scotland, St. Margaret; in Germany, St. Henry, 
Emperor; in Hungary, St. Stephen. The cloister also was now enriched 
with the Cisterchian order, by St. Robert; the Carthusian order was found- 
ed by St. Bruno; and the order of Valombroso, by St. John Gaulbert 
While, on one hand, a great branch of the apostolic tree was lopped off, by 
the second defection of the Greek Church, and some rotten boughs were 
cut off from it, in the new Manicheans, who had found their way from Bul- 
garia into France, as likewise in the followers of the innovator Berenga- 
rius; it received fresh strength and increase from the conversion of the 
Hungarians, and of the Normans and Danes, who before had desolated 
England, France, and the two Sicilies. 

CENT. XII. 

In this century heresy revived with fresh vigour, and in a variety of 
forms, though mostly of the Manichean family. Mahometanism also again 
threatened to overwhelm Christianity. To oppose these, the Almighty 
was pleased to raise up a succession of as able and virtuous Popes as ever 
graced the Tiara, with a proportionable number of other Catholic cham- 
pions to defend his cause. These were Paschal II, Gelasius II, Ualixtus II, 4 
Honorius II, Innocent II, who held the second general council of Lateran, 
Celestin II, Lucius I,Eugenius III, Anastasius IV, Adrian IV, an English- 
man, Alexander III, who held the third Lateran council, Lucius III, Urban 
III, Gregory VIII, Clement III, and Celestin III. The doctors of note were, 



Letter XXVIII. 



195 



peculiar to the See of Rome : for in all the other churches, 
founded by the apostles, as those of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alex- 
in the first place, the mellifluous Bernard, a saint, however, who was not. 
more powerful in word than in work; likewise the venerable Peter, abbot 
of Clugni, St. Anselm and St. Thomas, archbishops of Canterbury, Peter 
Lombard, master of the sentences, St. Otto, bishop of Bamberg, St. Nor- 
bert of Magdeburg, St. Henry of Upsal, St. Malachy of Armagh, St. Hugh 
of Lincoln, and St. William of York. The chief heresies, alluded to, 
were those propagated by Marsilius of Padua, Arnold of Brescia, Henry 
of Thoulouse, Tanchelm, Peter Bruis, the Waldenses, or disciples of Pe- 
ter Waldo, and the Bogomilians, Patarins, Cathari, Puritans, and Albigen- 
ses, all the latter being different sects of Manicheans. To make up for the 
loss of these, the church was increased by the conversion of the Norwe- 
gians and Livonians, chiefly through the labours of the above named Adrian 

IV, then an apostolic missionary, called Nicholas Breakspeare. Courland 
was converted by St. Meinard, and even Iceland was engrafted in the apos- 
tolic tree by the labours of Catholic missionaries. 

CENT. XIII. 

The successors of St. Peter in this age were Innocent III, who held the 
fourth Lateran council, at which four hundred and twelve bishops, eight 
hundred abbots, and ambassadors from most of the Christian sovereigns 
were present, for the extinction of the impious and infamous Albigensian 
or Manichean heresy. Honorius III, Gregory IX, Celestin IV, who held 
the first general council of Lyons, Alexander IV, Urban IV, Gregory X, 
who held the second council of Lyons, in which the Greeks renounced 
their schism, though they soon fell back into it, Innocent V, Adrian V, 
John XXI, Nicholas III, Martin IV, Honorius IV, Nicholas IV, Celestic 

V, who abdicated the pontificate and was afterwards canonized, and Boni- 
face VIII. The most celebrated doctors of the church were St. Thomas 
of Aquin, St. Bonaventure, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Raymond of 
Pennafort. Other illustrious supporters and ornaments of the church, 
were St. Lewis, king of France, St. Elizabeth, queen of Hungary, St. 
Hedvvidge of Poland, St. Francis of Asskium, St. Dominic, St. Edmund, 
archb.shop of Canterbury, St. Thomas of Hereford, and St. Richard of 
Chichester. The chief heretics were the Beguardi and Fratricelli, whose 
grow immoralities Mosheim himself confesses. In the mean time Spain 
Was, in a great measure, recovered to the Catholic church from the Maho- 
metan impiety; Courland, Gothland, and Estonia, were converted by Bald- 
win, a zealous missionary: the Cumani, near the mouths of the Danube, 
were received into the church, and several tribes of Tartars, with one of 
their emperors, were converted by the Franciscan missionaries, whom the 
Pope sent among them, not, however, without the martyrdom of many of 
them. 

CENT. XIV. 

Still did the promise of Christ, in the preservation of his church, con- 
trary to all opposition, and beyond the term of all human institutions, con- 
tinue to be verified. The following were the head pastors, who succes- 
sively presided over it; Benedict XT, Clement V, who held the general 
council of Vienna, John XXII, Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urban V, 
Gregory XI, Urban VI, and Boniface IX. Among the chief ornaments of 
the church, in this age, maybe reckoned St. Elizabeth, queen of Portugal, 
St. Bridget of Sweden, Count Elzear and his spouse Delphina, St. Nicho- 
las of Tolentino, St. Catherine of Sienna, John Ruabrock, Peter, bishop of 



196 



Letter XXV 111 



andria, Corinth, Ephesus, Smyrna, &c. owing to internal dis 

sensions and external violence, the succession of their bishops 

Autun, &c. The Manichean abominations maintained and practiced by 
the Turlupins, Dulcinians and other sects, continued to exercise the vigi- 
lance and zeal of the Catholic pastors, and the Lollards of Germany, together 
with the Wickliffites of England, whose errors and conduct were levelled 
at the foundations of society, as well as of religion, were opposed by all 
true Catholics in their respective stations. The chief conquests of the 
church in this century were in Lithunia, the prince and people of which 
received her faith, and in Great Tartary, where the archbishopric of Cam- 
balu and six suffragan bishoprics were established by the Pope. Odoric, 
the missionary, who furnished the account of these events, is known him- 
self to have baptized twenty thousand converts. 

CENT. XV. 

The succession of Popes continued through this century, thougn among 
numerous difficulties and dissensions, in the following order: Innocent VII, 
Gregory XII, Alexander V, John XXIII, Martin V, Eugenius, .IV, who 
held the general council of Florence, and received the Greeks, once more, 
into the Catholic communion, Nicholas V, Calixtus III, Pius II, Paul II, 
Sixtus IV, Innocent VIII, and Alexander VI In this age flourished St. 
Vincent Ferrer, the Wonder-worker, both in the order of grace and in that 
of nature, St. Francis of Paula, whose miracles were not less numerous 01 
extraordinary, St. Laurence Justinian, Patriarch of Venice, St Antonius . 
archbishop of Florence, St. Casimir, Prince of Poland, the Venerabl* 
Thomas a Kempis, Dr. John Gerson, Thomas Waldensis, the learned 
English Carmelite, Alphonsus Tostatus, Cardinal Ximenes, &c. At thi* 
period the Canary Islands were added to the church, as were, in a great 
measure, the kingdoms of Congo and Angola, with other large districts in 
Africa and Asia, wherever the Tortuguese established themselves. The 
Greek schismatics also, as I have said, together with the Armenians and 
Montholities of Egypt, were, for a time, engrafted on the apostolic tree, 
These conquests, however, were dampt by the errors and violence of the 
various sects of Hussites, and the immoral tenets and practices of the Ad- 
amites, and other remnants of the Albigenses. 

CENT. XVI. 

This century was distinguished by that furious storm from the north, 
which stripped the apostolic tree of so many leaves and branches in this 
quarter. That arrogant monk, Martin Luther, vowed destruction to the 
tree itself, and engaged to plant one of those separated branches instead 
of it; but the attempt was fruitless; for the main stock was sustained by 
the arm of Omnipotence, and the dissevered boughs splitting into number- 
less fragments, withered, as all such boughs had heretofore done. It would 
be impossible to number up all these discordant sects; the chief of them 
were, the Lutherans, the Zuinglians, the Anabaptists, the Calvinists, the 
Anglicans, the Puritans, the Family of Love, and the Socinians. In the 
mean time, on the trunk of the apostolic tree grew the following Pontiffs: 
Pius III, Julius II, who held the fifth Lateran Council, Leo X, Adrian 
VI, Clement VII, Paul III, Julius III, Marcellus II, Paul IV, Pius 
IV, who concluded the Council of Trent, where 281 prelates con- 
demned the novelties of Luther, Calvin, &c, St. Pius V, Gregory XIII, 
Sixtus V, Urban VII, Gregory XlV, Innocent IX, and Clement VIII. 
Other supportets of the Catholic and apostolic church against the attacks 



Letter XXVI U. 



197 



has, at different times, been broken and confounded. Hence 
the See of Rome is emphatically and for a double reason call- 
made upon her, were, Fisher, bishop of Rochester, sir Thomas More, 
Chancellor, Cuthbert Maine, and some hundreds more of priests and reli- 
gious who were martyred under Henry VIII and Elizabeth, in this cause; 
also the Cardinals Pole, Hosius, Cajetan and Allen, with the writers Ec- 
kius, Cochleu, Erasmus, Campion, Parsons, Stapleton, &c. together with 
that constellation of great saints which then appeared, SS. Charles Borro- 
meo, Cajetan, Philip Neri, Ignatius, F. Xavier, F. Borgia, Teresa, &c. 
In short, the damages sustained from the northern storm were amply repaid 
to the church, by innumerable conversions in the new eastern and western 
worlds. It is computed that St. Xavier alone preached the faith in 52 king- 
doms or independent states, and baptized a million of converts with his own 
hand, in India and Japan. St. Lewis Bertrand, Martin of Valentia, and 
Bartholomew Las Casas, with their fellow missionaries, converted most of 
the Mexicans, and great progress was made in the conversion of the Bra- 
zilians, though not without the blood of many martyred preachers in these 
and the other Catholic missions. David, emperor of Abyssinia, with many 
of his family and other subjects, were now reclaimed to the church, anc 
Pulika, patriarch of the Nestorians in Assyria, came to Rome, in order to 
join the numerous churches under him to the centre of unity and truth. 

CENT. XVII. 

The sects, of which I have been speaking, were, at the beginning of 
this century, in their full vigour; and though they differed in most other 
respects, yet they combined their forces, under the general name of Pro- 
testants, to overthrow Christ's everlasting church. These attempts, how- 
ever, like the waves of the troubled ocean, were dashed to pieces against 
the rock on which he had built it. On the contrary, they weakened them- 
selves by civil wars and fresh divisions. The Lutherans split into Diapho- 
rists and Adiaphorisis, the Calvinists into Gomarists and Arminians, and the 
Anglicans into Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Independents, and Quakers. 
A vain effort was now set on foot, through Cyril Lucaris, to gain over the 
Greek churches to Calvinism, which ended in demonstrating their invio- 
lable attachment to all the controverted doctrines of Catholicity. Another 
more fatal attempt, was made to infect several members of the church 
itself with the distinguishing error of Calvinism, under the name of Jan- 
senism. But the successors of St. Peter continued, through the whole of 
the century, equally to make head against Protestant innovations, Jansen- 
istical vigour, and casuistical laxity. Their names, in order, were these, 
Leo XI, Paul V, Gregory XV, Urban VIII, Innocent X, Alexander VII, 
Clement IX, Clement X, Innocent XI, Alexander VIII and Innocent 
XII. Their orthodoxy was powerfully supported by the Cardinals Bellar- 
min, Baronius and Perron, with the bishops Huetius, Bossuet, Fenelon, 
Richard Smith, and the divines Petavius, Tillemont, Pagi, Thomassin, 
Kellison, Cressy, &c. Nor were the canonized saints of this age fewer in 
number or less illustrious than those of the former, namely, St. Francis of 
Sales, St. Frances Chantal, St. Camillus, St. Fidelis Martyr, St. Vincent of 
of Paul, &c. Finally, the church continued to be crowded with fresh 
converts, in Peru, Chili, Terra Firma, Canada, Louisiana, Mingrelia. 
Tartary, India, and many islands both of Africa and Asia. She had ateo 
the consolation of receiving into her communion the several Patriarchs ol 
Damascus, Aleppo, and Alexandria, and also the Nestorian archbishops oi 
Chaldaea and Meliapore, with their respective clergy. 
17* 



198 



Letter XXV III. 



ed THE APOSTOLICAL SEE, and being the head See and 

centre of union of the whole Catholic church, furnishes the firsl 
claim to its title of THE APOSTOLICAL CHURCH. But 
you also see, in the sketch of this mystical tree, an uninterrupt- 
ed series of other bishops, doctors, pastors, saints, and pious 
personages, of different times and countries, through these eigh- 
teen centuries, who have, in their several stations, kept up the 
perpetual succession, those of one century having been the in- 
structors of those who succeeded them in the next, all of them 
following the same two-fold rule, Scripture and tradition ; all of 
them acknowledging the same expositor of this rule, the Catholic 
church, and all of them adhering to the main trunk or centre of 
union, the apostolic See. Some of the general councils or 
synods likewise appear, in which the bishops from different parts 
of the church, under the authority of the Pope, assembled, from 
lime to time, to define its doctrine and regulate its discipline. 
The size of the sheet did not admit of all the councils being 

CENT. XVIII. 

At length we have mounted up the apostolic tree to our own age. In 
this heresy having sunk, for the most part, into Socinian indifference, and 
Jansenism into philosophical infidelity, this last waged as cruel a war 
against the Catholic church [and O glorious mark of truth! against her 
alone} as Decius and Dioclesian did heretofore: but this has only proved 
her internal strength of constitution, and the protection of the God of 
heaven. The Pontiffs, who have stood the storms of this century, were 
Clement XI, Innocent XIII, Benedict XIV, Clement XIII, Clement XIV, 
Pius VI, as at the beginning of the present century Pius VII has done. 
Among other modern supporters and ornaments of the church, may be 
mentioned the Cardinals Thomasi and Quirina, the bishops Languet, La 
Motte, Beaumont, Challoner, Hornyold, Walmesley, Hay and Moylan. 
Among the writers are Calmet, Muratori, Bergier, Feller, Goth er, Manning, 
Ha warden, and Alban Butler; and among the personages distinguished by 
their piety, the Good Dauphin, his sister Louisa the Carmelite nun, his he- 
roical daughter Elizabeth, his other daughter Clotilda, whose beatification 
is now in progress, as those of bishop Liguori, and Paul of the cross, foun- 
der of the Passionists ; as also FF. Surenne, Nolhac and L. Enfant, with 
their fellow-martyrs and the venerable Labre, &c. Nor has the apostolical 
work of converting Infidels been neglected by the Catholic church, in the 
midst of such persecutions. In the early part of the century, numberless 
souls were gained by Catholic preachers in the kingdoms of Madura, Co- 
chinchina, Tonquin, and in the empire of China, including the peninsula 
of Corea. At the same time numerous savages were civilized and bap- 
tized among the Hurons, Miamis, Illinois, and other tribes of North Amer- 
ica. But the most glorious conquest, because the most difficult and most 
complete, was that gained by the Jesuits in the interior of South America 
over the wild savages of Paraguay, Uraguay and Parona, together with the 
wild Canisians, Moxos, and Chiquites, who, after shedding the blood oi 
some hundreds of their first preachers, at length opened their hearts to the 
mild and sweet truths of the Gospel, and became models of piety and mo- 
rality, nor less so of industry, civil order, and polity. 



Letter XXIX. 



199 



exhibited. Again you behold, in this tree, the continuation of 

the apostolical work, the conversion of nations, which, as it was 
committed by Christ to the Catholic church, so it has never 
been blessed by him with success in any hands but in hers. 
This exclusive miracle, in the order of grace, like those in the 
order of nature, which I treated of in a former letter, is itself a 
divine attestation on her behalf. Speaking of the conversion of 
nations, I must not fail, dear sir, to remind your society, that 
this our country has twice freen reclaimed from Paganism, and 
each time by the apostolic labours of missionaries, sent hither 
by the See of Rome. The first conversion took place in the 
second century, when Pope Eleutherius sent Fugatius and Duvi- 
anus for this purpose, to the ancient Britons, or Welsh, under 
their king or governor, Lucius, as Bede and other historians 
relate. The second conversion was that of our immediate an- 
cestors, the English Saxons and Angles, by St. Augustin and 
his compani6ns, at the end of the sixth century, who were sent 
from Rome, on this apostolical errand, by Pope Gregory the 
Great. Lastly, you see in the present sketch, a serii-s of un- 
happy children of the church, who, instead of hearing her doc- 
trines, as it was their duty to do, have pretended to reform them ; 
and thus, losing the vital influx of their parent stock, have 
withered and fallen off from it as mere dead branches. 

I am, &c. J. M 

LETTER XXIX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. <$fc. \ 

on the apostolicity of the catholic ministry. 
Dear Sir, i 
In viewing the apostolical tree, you are to consider it as re- | 
presenting an uninterrupted succession of pontiffs and prelates, , 
who derive not barely their doctrine, but also, in a special man- j 
ner, their ministry, namely their holy orders and the right or j 
jurisdiction to exercise those orders in a right line, from the j 
apostles of Jesus Christ. In fact, the Catholic church, in all 
past ages, has not been more jealous of the sacred deposite of 
orthodox doctrine, than of the equally sacred deposites of legiti- 
mate ordination, by bishops who themselves had been rightly 
ordained and consecrated, and of valid jurisdiction, or divine 
mission, by which she authorizes her ministers to exercise their ' : 
respective functions in such and such places, with respect to 
«uch and such persors, and under such and such conditions, as ' 



200 



Letter XXIX. 



she, by the depositaries of this jurisdiction, is pleased to ordaia 
Thus, my dear sir, every Catholic pastor is authorized and en- 
abled to address his flock as follows : The word of God which 1 
announce to you, and the holy sacraments which I dispense to 
you, I am QUALIFIED to announce and dispense by such a 
Catholic bishop, who was consecrated by such another Catholic 
bishop, and so on, in a series, which reaches to the apostles them- 
selves : and I am AUTHORIZED to preach and minister to you, 
by such a prelate, who received authority, for this purpose, from 
the successor of St. Peter, in the apostolic See of Rome. Here- 
tofore, during a considerable time, the learned and conscientious 
divines of the church of England held the same principles, oil 
both these points, that Catholics have ever held, and were no 
less firm in maintaining the divine right of episcopacy and the 
ministry than we are. This appears from the works of one 
who was, perhaps, the most profound and accurate amongst 
them, the celebrated Hooker, He proves, at great length, that 
the ecclesiastical ministry is a divine function, instituted by God, 
and deriving its authority from God, " in a very different man- 
ner from that of princes and magistrates :" that it is " a wretch- 
ed blindness not to admire so great a power as that, which the 
clergy are endowed with, or to suppose that any but God can 
bestow it :" that " it consists in a power over the mystical body 
of Christ by the remission of sins, and over his natural body in 
the sacrament, which antiquity doth call the making of Christ's 
body. 1 '* He distinguishes between the power of orders and the 
authority of mission or jurisdiction, on both which points he is 
supported by the canons and laws of the establishment. Not 
to speak of prior laws ; the act of uniformity,f provides that 
no minister shall hold any living, or officiate in any church, 
who has not received episcopal ordination. It also requires 
that he shall be approved and licensed for his particular place 
and function. This is also clear from the form of induction of 
a clerk into any cure.J In virtue of this system, when Episco- 
pacy was re-established in Scotland, in the year 1662, four 
Presbyterian ministers having been appointed by the king to 
that office, the English bishops refused to consecrate them, un- 
less they consented to be previously ordained deacons and 
priests, thus renouncing their former ministerial character, and 
acknowledging that they had hitherto been mere laymen.^ In 

* Ecclesiast. Politic. B. v. Art. 77. 
t Stat. 13 and 14 Car. 2, c. 4. 

t '* Curam et regimen animarum parochianorum tibi committimus. 
§ Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. ii. p. 887. It appears from the same history 
that four )ther Scotch ministers, who had formerly permitted themselves t« 



Letter XXIX. Wl 

like manner, on the accession of king William, who ^as a 
Dutch Calvinist, to the throne, when a commission of ten bi- 
shops and twenty divines was appointed to modify the articles 
and liturgy of the established church, for the purpose of form- 
ing a coalition with the dissenters, it appeard that the most lax 
among them, such as Tillotson and Burnet, together with chief 
baron Hales and other lay lords, required that the dissenting 
ministers should, at least be conditionally ordained* as being 
thus far mere laymen. In a word, it is well known to be the 
practice of the established church, at the present day, to ordain 
all dissenting Protestant ministers of every description, who go 
over to her, whereas, she never attempts to re-ordain an apos- 
tate Catholic priest, who offers himself to her servive, but is 
satisfied with his taking the oaths prescribed by law.f This 
doctrine of the establishment, evidently unchurches, as Dr. Hey- 
lin expresses it, all other Protestant communions ; as it is an 
established principle that, No ministry no church,^ and with 
equal evidence, it unchristians them also ; since this church una- 
nimously resolved, in 1575, that baptism cannot be performed 
by any person but a lawful minister.^ 

But dismissing these uncertain and wavering opinions, we 
know what little account all other Protestants, except those of 
England, have made of apostolical succession and episcopal 
ordination. Luther's principles on these points are clear from 
his famous Bull against the FALSELY CALLED order of ' bi- 
shops, \\ where he says, " Give ear now, you bishops, or rather 
you visors of the devil : Dr. Luther will read you a Bull and a 
Reform, which will not sound sweet in your ears. Dr. Luther's 
Bull and Reform is this, whoever spend their labour, persons 
and fortunes, to lay waste you episcopacies, and to extinguish 
the government of bishops, they are the beloved of God, true 

be consecrated bishops, were, on that account, excommunicated and de- 
graded by the kirk. Records, N. cxiii. 

• Life of Tillotson by Dr. Birch, pp. 42. 176. 

t Notwithstanding these proofs of the doctrine and practice of the es- 
tablished church, a great proportion of her modern divines consent, at the 
present day, to sacrifice all her pretensions to divine authority and uninter- 
rupted succession It has been shown in The hellers to a Prebendary, that 
in the principles of the celebrated Dr. Balguy, a p-iest or a bishop can as 
well be made by the town crier, if commissioned by the civil power, as by 
the metropolitan. To this system, Dr. Sturges, Dr. Hey, Dr. Paley, and a 
crowd of other learned theologians subscribe their names. Even the 
bishop of Lincoln, in maintaining Episcopacy to be an apostolical institu- 
tion, denies it to be binding on Christians to adopt it: which, in fact, is to 
reduce it to a mere civil and optional practice. Elem. Vol. ii. Art. 23. 

% " Ubi nullus est Sacerdos nulla est Ecclesia." St. Jerom, &o. 

§ Elem. of Theol. Vol. ii. p. 471. 

tl Adversus falso Nomin. Torm ii. Jen. A. D. 1525. 



202 



Letter XXIX. 



Christians, and opposers of the devil's ordinances. On the 

other hand, whoever support the government of bishops, and 
willingly obey them, they are the devil's ministers," &c. True 
it is, that afterwards, namely, in 1542, this arch-reformer, to 
gratify his chief patron, the Elector of Saxony, took upon him- 
self to consecrate his bottle companion, Amsdorf, bishop of 
Naumburgh :* but, then, it is notorious, from the whole of his 
conduct, that Luther set himself above all law, and derided con- 
sistency and decency. Nearly the same may be sard of an- 
other later reformer, John Wesley, who, professing himself to be 
a Presbyter of the church of England, pretended to ordain 
Messrs. Whatcoat, Vesey, &c. priests, and to consecrate Dr. 
Coke a bishop !\ With equal inconsistency, the elders of Hern- 
huth in Moravia, profess to consecrate bishops for England and 
other kingdoms. On the other hand, how averse the Calvin- 
ists. and other dissenters, are to the very name as well as the 
office of bishops, all modern histories, especially those of En- 
gland and Scotland, demonstrate. But, in short, by whatever 
name, whether of bishops, priests, deacons, or pastors, these 
ministers respectively call themselves, it is undeniable, that they 
are all self-appointed^ or, at most, they derive their claim from 
other men, who themselves were self-appointed, fifteen, sixteen, 
or seventeen hundred years subsequent to the time of the apostles. 

The chief question which remains to be discussed concerns 
the ministry of the church of England : namely, whether the first 
Protestant bishops, appointed by queen Elizabeth, when the Ca- 
tholic bishops were turned out of their Sees, did or did not re- 
ceive valid consecration from some other bishop, who, himself, 
was validly consecrated ? The discussion of this question has 
friled many volumes, the result of which is, that the orders are, 
to say the least, exceedingly doubtful. For, first, it is certain 
that the doctrine of the fathers of this church was very loose, as 
to the necessity of consecration and ordination.. Its chief 
founder, Cranmer, solemnly subscribed his name to the position, 
that princes and governors, no less than bishops, can make priests, 
and that no consecration is appointed by Scripture to make a 
bishop or priest. J In like manner, Barlow, on the validity of 

* Sleidan, Comment. L. 14. 

t Dr. Whitehead's Life of Charles and John Wesley. It appears that 
Charles was horribly scandalized at this step of his brother John, and that 
a lasting schism among the Wesleyan Methodists was the consequence of it. 

t Burnet's Hist of Reform. Records, B. iii. N. 21. See also his Rec- 
Part ii. N. 2, by which it appears that Cranmer and the other complying pre- 
lates took out fresh commissions on the death of Henry VIII, from Edward 
VI, to govern their dioceses, durante beneplacito, like mere civil officers. 



Letter XXIX. 



203 



whose consecration that of Matthew Parker and of all succeed- 
ing Anglican bishops chiefly rests, preached openly that the 
king's apointment, without any orders whatsoever, suffices to 
make a bishop.* This doctrine seems to have been broached 
by him to meet the objection that he himself had never been con- 
secrated : in fact, the record of such a transaction has been 
hunted for in vain, during these two hundred years. Secondly, 
it is evident, from the books of controversy, still extant, that the 
Catholic doctors, Harding, Bristow, Stapleton, and Cardinal 
Allen-, who had been fellow-students and intimately acquainted 
with the first Protestant bishops, under Elizabeth, and particu- 
larly with Jewel, bishop of Sarum, and Home, bishop of Win- 
ton, constantly reproached them, in the most pointed terms, that 
they never had been consecrated at all, and that the latter, in 
their voluminous replies, never accepted of the challenge or refu- 
ted the charge, otherwise than by ridiculing the Catholic conse- 
cration. Thirdly, it appears that after an interval of fifty years 
from the beginning of the controversy, namely in the year 1613, 
when Mason, chaplain to archbishop Abbot, published a work, 
referring to an alleged Register at Lambeth, of archbishop Par- 
ker's consecration by Barlow, assisted by Coverdale and others, 
the learned Catholics universally exclaimed that the Register 
was a forgery, unheard of till that date, and asserted, among other 
arguments, that, admitting it to be true, it was of no avail, as the 
pretended consecrator of Parker, though he had sat in several 
Sees, had not himself been consecrated for any of them.f 

These, however, are not the only exceptions which Catholic 
divines have taken to the ministerial orders of the church of 
England. They have argued, in particular, against the form of 
them, as theologians term it ; in fact, according to the ordinal of 
Edward VI, restored by Elizabeth, priests were ordained by the 
power of forgiving sins,\ without any power of offering up sacri- | 
fee, in which the essence of the sacerdotium, or priesthood con- 
sists ; and, according to the same ordinal, bishops were conse- 
crated without the communication of any fresh power whatso- 
ever, or even the mention of episcopacy, by a. form which might 
be used to a child, when confirmed or baptized. $ This was 

* Collier's Eccl. Hist. Vol. ii. p. 135. 

t Richardson, in his notes on Godwin's Commentary, is forced to confess 
as follows: " Dies consecrationis ejus (Barlow) nondum apparent." p. 642. 

t " Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins thou dost forgive, they are for- 
given; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained: and be thou a 
faithful dispenser of the word of God, and of his Holy Sacraments 
Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 158- 

§ " Take the Holy Ghost, and remember that thou stir up the grace of 
God, which is in thee by the imposition of hands." — Ibid. p. 164. 



204 



Letter XXIX. 



agreeable to the maxims of the principal author of that ordinal, 
Cranmer, who solemnly decided that " bishops and priests were 
no two things, but one and the same office."* On this subject 
our controvertists urge, not only the authority of all the Latin 
and Greek ordinals, but also the confession of the above-men- 
tioned Protestant divine, Mason, who says, with evident truth, 
" Not every form of words will serve for this institution (con- 
veying orders) but such as are significant of the power con-, 
veyed by the order. "f In short, these objections were so pow- 
erfully urged by our divines, Dr. Champney, J. Lewgar, S. T. 
B.} and others, that almost immediately after the last named had 
published his work containing them, called Erastus Senior, 
namely, in 1662, the convocation, being assembled, it altered the 
form of ordaining priests and consecrating bishops, in order to 
obviate these objections. § But admitting that these alterations 
are sufficient to obviate all the objections of our divines to the 
ordinal, which they are not, they came above a hundred years 
too late for their intended purpose ; so that if the priests and 
bishops of Edward's and Elizabeth's reigns were . invalidly or- 
dained and consecrated, so must those of Charles II.'s reign, and 
their succsssors, have been also. 

However long I have dwelt on this subject, it is not yet ex- 
hausted : the case is, there is the same necessity of an apostol- 
ical succession of mission or authority, to execute the functions 
of holy orders, as there is of the holy orders themselves. This 
mission, or authority, was imparted by Christ to his apostles, 
when he said to them, As the Father hath stmt me, I also send, 
you, Mat. xx. 21, and of this St. Paul also speaks, where he says 
of the apostles, How can they preach unless they are sent ? Rom. 
x. 15. I believe, sir, that no regular Protestant church, or so- 
ciety, admits its minister, to have, by their ordination or ap- 
pointment, unlimited authority in every place and congregation : 
certain it is, from the ordinal and articles of the established 

* Burnet's Hist, of Reform, vol. i. Record, b. iii. n. 21, quest. 10. 
t Ibid. H. ii. c. 16. 

t Lewgar was the friend of Chillingworth, and by him converted to the 
Catholic faith, which, however, he refused to abandon, when the latter re- 
lapsed into Latitudinarianism. 

§ The form of ordaining a priest was thus altered: " Receive the Holy 
3-host for the office and work of a priest in the church of God, now com- 
mitted to thee by the imposition of our hands: Whose sins thou shalt for 
rive, they are forgiven,*' &c. — The form of consecrating a bishop was thu> 
jnlarged: " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a bishop in 
he church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of oui 
lands, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoat t 
tnd remember, that thou stir up the grace of God, which is in thee." 



Letter XXIX . 



205 



church, that she confines the jurisdiction of her ministers to 
"the congregation to which they shall be appointed."* Con- 
formably to this, Dr. Berkley teaches, that " a defect in the mis- 
sion of the ministry, invalidates the sacraments, affects the puri- 
ty of public worship, and therefore deserves to be investigated 
by every sincere Christian. "f To this archdeacon Daubeny ; 
adds, that " Regular mission only subsists in the churches which 
have preserved apostolical succession." I moreover believe ! 
that in all Protestant societies the ministers are persuaded that , 
the authority by which they preach and perform their functions i 
is, some how or another, divine. But, on this head, I must ob- , 
serve to you, dear sir, and your society, that there are only i 
two ways by which divine mission or authority can be proved , 
or communicated ; the one ordinary, the other extraordinary, i 
The former takes place when this authority is transmitted in reg- i 
ular succession from those who originally received it from God ; • 
the other, when the Almighty interposes, in an extraordinary l 
manner, and immediately commissions certain individuals to : 
make known his will to men. The latter mode evidently re- 
quires indisputable miracles to attest it ; and accordingly Moses ■ 
and our Saviour Christ, who were sent in this manner, constant- : 
ly appealed to the prodigies they wrought in proof of their di- • 
vine mission. Hence, even Luther, when Muncer, Storck, and 
their followers, the Anabaptists, spread their errors and devasta- 
tions through Lower Germany, counselled the magistrates to put 
these questions to them, (not reflecting that the questions were i 
as applicable to himself as to Muncer,) " Who conferred upon you , 
the office of preaching ? And who commissioned you to preach ? i 
If they answer, God, then let the magistrates say, prove this to I 
us by some evident miracle : for so God makes known his will, 
when he changes the institutions, which he had before establish- i 
ed."| Should this advice of the first reformer to the magistrates I 
be followed in this age and country, what swarms of sermoni- , 
zers and expounders of the Bible would be reduced to silence ! ; 
For, on one hand, it is notorious, that they are self-appointed \ 
prophets, who run without being sent ; or, if they pretend to a i 
commission, they derive it from other men, who themselves had 
received none, and who did not so much as claim any, by regu- 
lar succession from the apostles. Such was Luther himself 
such also were Zuinglius, Calvin, Muncer, Menno, John Knox 
George Fox, Zinzendorf, Wesley, Whitfield, and Swedenborg 
None of these preachers, as I have signified, so much as pre-; 

* Article 23. Form of ordering priests and deacons, 
t Serm. at Consecr. of bishop Home. t Sleidan. De Stat. Relig. 1.7. 
18 



206 



Letter XXIX. 



tended to have received their mission from Christ in the ordt 

nary way, by uninterrupted succession from the apostles. On 
the other hand, they were so far from undertaking to work real 
miracles, by way of proving they have received an extraordinary 
mission from Gdi, that, as Erasmus reproached them, they could 
not so much as cure a lame horse, in proof of their divine legation. 

Should your friend, the Rev. Mr. Clark, see this letter, he 
will doubtless exclaim, that, whatever may be the case with dis- 
senters, the church of England,- at least, has received her mis- 
sion and authority, together with her orders, by regular succes- 
sion from the apostles, through the Catholic bishops, in the or- 
ninary way. In fact, this is plainly asserted by the bishop of 
Lincoln * But take notice, dear sir, that though we were to ad- 
mit of an apostolical succession of orders in the established 
church, we never could admit of an apostolical succession of mis- 
sion, jurisdiction, or right to exercise those orders in that church : 
nor can its clergy, with any consistency, lay the least claim to 
it. For, first, if the Catholic church, that is to day, its " Laity 
and elegy, all sects and degrees, were drowned in abominable 
idolatry, most detested of God and damnable to man, for the 
space of eight hundred years," as the Homilies affirm,f how 
could she retain this divine mission and jurisdiction, all this time, 
and employ them in commissioning her clergy all this time to 
preach up this " detestable idolatry ?" Again, was it possible 
for the Catholic church to give jurisdiction and authority, for 
example, to archbishop Parker, and the bishops Jewel and Home, 
to preach against herself? Did ever any insurgents against an 
established government, except the regicides in the grand rebel- 
lion, claim authority from that very government to fight against 
it, and destroy it ? In a word, we perfectly well know, from his- 
tory, that the first English Protestants did not profess, any more 
than foreign Protestants, to derive any mission or authority what- 
soever from the apostles, through the existing Catholic church. 
Those of Henry's reign preached and ministered in defiance of 
all authority, ecclesiastical and civil. J Their successors in the 
reign of Edward and Elizabeth claimed their whole right and mis- 
sion to preach and to minister from the civil power only.$ This 

• Elem of Theol. vol. ii. p. 400. f Against the Perils of Idolatry, P. 'ii. 
£ t Collier's Hist. vol. ii. p. 81. 

[ § Archbishop Abbot having incurred suspension by the canon law, for 
JiccidentaLly shooting a man, a royal commission was issued to restore him. 
pn another occasion he was suspended by the king himself, for refusing to 
ucense a book. In Elizabeth's reign, the bishops approved of prophesying 1 
\a it was called, the queen disapproved of it, /und she obliged them to con- 
demn it. 



Letter XXIX. 



207 



latter point is demostratively evident front the act and the oath of 

supremacy, and from the homage of the archbishops and bishops 
to the said Elizabeth, in which the prelate elect " acknowledges 
and confesses, that he holds his bishopric, as well in spiritual* 
as in temporals, from her alone and the crown royal." The 
same thing is clear from a series of royal ordinances respecting 
the clergy in matters purely spiritual, such as the pronouncing 
on doctrine, the prohibition of prophesying, the inhibition of all 
preaching, the giving and suspending of spiritual faculties, &c. 
Now, though- 1 sincerely and cheerfully ascribe to my sovereign 
all the temporal and civil power, jurisdiction, rights, and authority, 
which the constitution and laws ascribe to him, I cannot believe 
that Christ appointed any temporal prince to feed his mystical fock^ 
or any part of it, or to exercise the power of the keys of the kingdom 
of heaven at his discretion. It was foretold by bishop Fisher in 
Parliament, that the royal ecclesiastical supremacy, if once ac- 
knowledged, might pass to a child or to a woman,* as, in fact, il 
soon did to each of them. It was afterwards transferred, with the 
crown itself, to a foreign Calvinist, and might have been settled, 
by a lay assembly, on a Mahometan. All, however, that is ne- 
cessary for me here to remark is, that the acknowledgment o: 
a royal ecclesiastical supremacy " in all spiritual and ecclesias 
tical things or causes,"! (as when the question is, who shal 
preach, baptize, &c. and who shall not ; what is sound doctrine 
and what is not,) is decidedly a renunciation of Christ's comis 
sion given to his apostles, and preserved by their successors ii 
the Catholic apostolic church. Hence it clearly appears tha 
there is and can be no apostolical succession of ministry in th< 
established church more than in the other congregations or socie 
ties of Protestants. All their preaching and ministering, in thei 
several degrees, is performed by mere human authority % Oi 
the other hand, not a sermon is preached, nor a child baptized 
nor a penitent absolved, nor a priest, ordained, nor a bishop con 
secrated, throughout the whole extent of the Catholic church 
without the minister of such function being able to show his au 
thority from Christ for what he does, in the commission of Chris 
to his apostles : All power in heaven and on earth is given to me 
Go therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them, <5fc. Mat. xxviii. 19 

* See his life by Dr. Bailey : also Dodd's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. 
t Oath of supremacy, Homage of bishops, &c. 

t it is curious to see in queen Elizabeth's Injunctions, and in the 37t 
Article, the disclaimer of her " actually ministering the Word and t) 
Sacrament" The question was not about this, but about the jurisdictio 
« mission of the ministry, 



!08 



Letter XXX. 



,nd without being able to prove his claim to that commission of 
Christ, by producing the table of his uninterrupted succession 
rom the apostles. I will not detain yon by entering into a com- 
larison, in a religious point of view, between a ministry, which 
'ffieiates by divine authority, and others which act by mere hu- 
%an authority ; but shall conclude this subject by putting it to 
tie good sense and candour of your society, whether, from all 
hat has been said, it is not as evident, which, among the differ- 
nt communions, is THE APOSTOLIC CHURCH we profess 
) believe in, as which is THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ? 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
objections answered. 

)ear Sir, 

I find that your visiter, the Rev. Mr. Clark, had not left you 
t the latter end of last week ; since it appears, by a letter which 
have received from him, that he had seen my two last letters, 
ldressed to you at New Cottage. He is much displeased with 
leir contents, which I am not surprised at ; and he uses some 
arsh expressions against them and their author, of which I do 
ot complain, as he was not a party to the agreement entered into 
1 the beginning of our correspondence, by the tenor of which 
1 was left at full liberty to follow up my arguments to whatever 
tagths they might conduct me, without and person of the soci- 
]y being offended with me on that account. I shall pass over 
] e passages in the letter which seem to have been dictated by 
1 j warm a feeling, and shall confine my answer to those which 
Britain something like argument against what I have advanced. 
'The Reverend gentleman, then, objects against the claim of 
'ir pontiffs to the apostolic succession ; that in different ages 
'is succession has been interrupted, by the contention of rival 
bpes ; and that the lives of many of them have been so crimi- 
*1, that according to my own arguments, as he says, it is in- 
' edible that such pontiffs should have been able to preserve 
d convey the commission and authority given by Christ to 
is apostles. I grant, sir, that, from the various commotions 
*d accidents to which all sublunary things are subject, there 
[ye been several vacancies, or interregnums in the Papacy ; 
,t none of them have been of such a lengthened duration as to 
fevent a moral continuation of the Popedom, or to hinder the 



Letter XXX. 



209 



execution of the i nportant office annexed to it v I grant also, 
that there have been rival Popes and unhappy schisms in the 
church, particularly one great schism, at the end of the four- 
teenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century : still the true 
Pope was always clearly discernible at the times we are speak- 
ing'of, and in the end was acknowledged even by his opponents. 
Lastly, I grant that a few of the Popes, perhaps a tenth part of 
the whole number, swerving from the example of the rest, have, 
by their personal vices, disgraced their holy station : but even 
these Popes always fulfilled their public duties to the church by 
maintaining the apostolical doctrine, moral as well as speculative, 
the apostolical orders, and the apostolical mission ; so that their 
misconduct chiefly injured their own souls, and did not essentially 
affect the church. But if what the Homilies affirm were true, 
that the whole church had been " drowned in idolatry for eight 
hundred years," she must have taught and commissioned all 
those, whom she ordained to teach this horrible apostasy, which 
she never could have done, and at the same time retained Christ's 
commission and authority to teach all nations the Gospel. This 
demonstrates the inconsistency of those clergymen of the estab- 
lishment, who accuse the Catholic church of apostasy and idol- 
atry, and at the same time boast of having received, through her, 
a spiritual jurisdiction and ministry from Jesus Christ. 

Your visiter next expatiates, in triumphant strains, on the ex- 
ploded fable of Pope Joan ; for exploded it certainly may be 
termed, when such men as the Calvinist minister Blondel, and 
the infidel Bayle, have abandoned and refuted it. But the cir- 
cumstances of the fable themselves sufficiently refute it. Ac- 
cording to these, in the middle of the ninth century, an English 
woman, born at Mentz, in Germany* studied philosophy at 
Athens, where there was no school of philosophy in the ninth 
century, more than there is now, and taught divinity at Rome. 
It is pretended that, being elected Pope, on the death of Leo 
IV in 855, she was delivered of a child, as she was walking in 
a solemn procession near the Colliseum, and died on the spot ; 
and moreover, that a statute of her was there erected in memory 
of the disgraceful event ! There have been great debates among 
the learned concerning the first author of this absurd tale, and 
concerning the interpolations in the copies of the first chronicles 
which mention it.f At all events, it was never heard of for 
more than two hundred years after the period in question : and 

* Ita Pseudo Martinus Polonus, &c. 

t See Breviarium Historico — Chronologico — criticum Pontif. Roman, 
studio R. F. Pagi, torn. ii. p. 72. 

18* 



Letter XXX 



■ in the mean time, we are assured, from the genuine works of 

- contemporary writers and distinguished prelates, some of whom 
' then resided at Rome, such as Anastasius the librarian, Luit- 
1 prand, Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, Photius of C. P. Lupis 

' Eerrar, &c. that Benedict III. was canonically elected Pope in 
' the said year 855, only three days after the death of Leo IV, 
t which evidently leaves no interval for the pontificate of the fab- 
t alous Joan. 

3 From the warfare of attack, my Reverend antagonist passes 

! to that of defence, as he terms it. In this he heavily complains 
of my not having done justice to the Protestants, particularly in 
the article of foreign missions. On this head, he enumerates 
the different societies, existing in this conntry, for carrying them 
on, and the large sums of money which they annually raise for 
this purpose. The societies, I learn from him, are the following : 
1st, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, called the 
Bartlet Building Society, which, though strictly of the Establish- 

' ment, employs missionaries in India to the number of six, all 
Germans, and it should seem, all Lutherans. 2dly, There is 

t the Society for propagating Christianity in the English colonies ; 
but I hear nothing of its doings. 3dly, There is another for the 

- conversion of negro slaves, of which I can only say, ditto. 4thly, 
1 There is another for sending missionaries to Africa and the East, 
1 concerning which we are equally left in the dark. 5thly, There 
: is the London Missionary Society, which sent out the ship Duff, 

with certain preachers and their wives, to Otaheite, Tongabatoo, 
and the Marquesas, and published a journal of the voyage, by 
which it appears that they are strict Calvinists, and Indepen- 
• dents. 6thly, The Edinburgh Missionary Society franternizes 
9 with the last mentioned. 7thly, There is an Arminian Mission- 
ary Society under Dr. Coke, the head of the Wesleyan Metho- 
^ dists. 8thly, There is a Moravian Missionary Society, which 
| appears more active than any others, particularly at the Cape, 
1 and in Greenland and Surinam. To these, your visiter says, 
;) must be added, the Hibernian Society for diffusing Christian 
-knowledge in Ireland ; as also, and still more particularly, the 
[ Bible Society, with all its numerous ramifications. Of this last 
( named, he speaks glorious things, foretelling that it will, in its 
'progress, purify the world from infidelity and wickedness. 
lE In answer to what has been stated, I have to mention several 
| ( marked differences between the Protestant and the Catholic mis- 
sionaries. The former preached various discordant religions; 
i 1 for what religions can be more opposite than the Calvinistic and 
f the Arminian ? And how indignant would a churchman feel, if 



Letter XXX. 



211 



I were to charge him with the impiety and obscenity of Zinzen- 
dorf and his Moravians ? The very preachers of the same sect, 
on board of the Duff, had not agreed upon the creed they were 
to teach, when they were within a few days sail of Otaheite.* 
Whereas the Catholic missionaries, whether Italians, French, 
Portuguese, or Spaniards, taught and planted precisely the same 
religion in the opposite extremities of the globe. Secondly, the 
envoys of those societies had no commission or authority to 
preach, but what they derived from the men and women, who 
contributed money to pay for their voyages and accommodations. 
/ have not sent these prophets, says the Lord, yet they ran ; I 
have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied, Jer. xxiii. 21. On 
the other hand, the apostolical men, who, in ancient and in mod- 
ern times, have converted the nations of the earth, all derived 
their mission and authority from the centre of the apostolic tree, 
the See of Peter. Thirdly, I cannot but remark the striking 
difference between the Protestant and the Catholic missionaries, 
with respect to their qualifications and method of proceeding. 
The former were, for the most part, mechanics and laymen, of 
the lowest order, without any learning infused or acquired, be- 
yond what they could pick up from the English translation of 
the Bible ; they were frequently incumbered with wives and 
children, and armed with muskets and bayonets, to kill those 
whom they could not convert. f Whereas the Catholic mission- 
aries have always been priests, or ascetics, trained to literature 
and religious exercises, men of continency and self-denial, who 
have had no other defence than their breviary and crucifix, no 
other weapon than the sword of the spirit, which is the word of 
God, Ephes. vi. 17. Fourthly, I do not find any portion of that 
lively faith and heroical constancy, in braving poverty, torments, 
and death, for the Gospel, among the few Protestant converts, 
or even among their preachers, which have so frequently illus- 
trated the different Catholic missions. Indeed, I have not heard 
of a single martyr of any kind, in Asia, Africa, or America, who 
can be considered as the fruit of the above-named societies, or 
of any other Protestant mission whatsoever. On the other hand, 

* " By the middle of January, the Committee of eight (among the 30 
missionaries) had nearly finished the articles of faith. Two of the number 
dissented, but gave in." — Journal of the Duff. 

t The eighteen preachers who remained at Otaheite " took up arms by 
way of precaution" — Ibid. It appears, from subsequent accounts, that the 
preachers made use of their arms, to protect their wives from the men 
w.hom they came to convert. Of the nine preachers destined for Tonga- 
d i to ) six were for carrying fire arms on shore, and three against it.— * 
• urnal. 



213 Letter XXX. ' 

few are the countries iri which the Christian religion has beeft 
planted by Catholic priests, without being watered with some of 
i their own blood and of that of their converts. To say nothing 
i of the martyrs of a late date in the Catholic missions of Turkey, 
i Abyssinia, Siam, Tonquin, Cochinchina, &c, there has been 
an almost continual persecution of the Catholics in the empire 
I of China, for about a hundred years past, which, besides con- 
! fessors of the faith, who have endured various tortures, has pro- 
duced a very great number of martyrs, native Chinese as well 
; as Europeans ; laity as well as priests and bishops.* Within 
these two years,! the wonderful apostle of the great Peninsula 
of Corea, to the east of China, James Ly, with as many as one 
hundred of his converts, has suffered death for the faith. In the 
islands of Japan, the anti-christian persecution, excited by the 
envy and avarice of the Dutch, raged with a fury unexampled 
in the records of Pagan Rome. It began with the crucifixion of 
twenty-six martyrs, most of them missionaries. It then pro- 
| ceeded to other more horrible martydoms, and it concluded with 
putting to death as many as eleven hundred thousand Chris 
I -tians.J rSlor were those numerous and splendid victories of th& 
Gospel in the provinces of South America achieved without tor- 
rents of Catholic blood. Many of the first preachers were slaugh 
i tered by the savages to whom they announced the Gospel, and not 
unfrequently devoured by them, as was the case with the first bishop 
of -Brazil. In the last place, the Protestant missions have never 
been attended with any great success. Those heretofore car- 
ried on by the Dutch, French, and American Calvinists, seemed 
to have been more levelled at the destruction of the Catholic 
missions, than at the conversion of the Pagans. § In later times, 

* Hist de 1'Eglise par Berault Bercastel, torn. 22, 23. Butler's Lives of 
. the Saints, Feb. 5. Mem. Eccles. pour le 18 Siec. 

J t Namely, in 1801. While this work is in the press, we receive an ac- 
i count of the martyrdom of Mgr. Dufresse, bishop of Tabraca, and Vicar 
i apostolic of Sutchuen, in China, who was beheaded there Sept. 14, 1815, 
; and of F. J. de Frior, missionary in Chiensi, who, after various torments, 
! was strangled, Feb. 13, 1816. 

t Berault Bercastel says two millions, torn. 20. 
[ § It is generally known, and not denied by Mosheim himself, that the 
extermination of the flourishing missions in Japan is to be ascribed to the 
Dutch. When they became masters of the Portuguese settlements in In- 
dia, they endeavoured, by persecution as well as by other means, to make 
! the Christian natives abandon the Catholic religion to which St. Xavier and 
: his companions had converted them. The Calvinist preachers having 
| failed in their attempt to proselyte the Brazilians, it happened that one oi 
| their party, James Sourie, took a merchant vessel at sea with forty Jesuit 
i missionaries, under F. Azevedo, on board of it, bound to Brazil, when, in 
* fcatred tc them and their destination, he put them all to death. The year 



Letter XXX. 



213 



the zeaious Wesley went on a mission to convert the savages of 
Georgia, but returned without making one proselyte. His com- 
panion Whitfield afterwards went to the same country on the 
same errand, but returned without any greater success. Of the 
missionaries who went out in the DurT, those who were left at 
the Friendly Islands and the Marquesas abandoned their posts 
in despair, as did eleven of the eighteen left at Otaheite. The 
remaining seven had not, in the course of six years, baptized a 
single Islander. In the mean time, the depravity of the natives 
in killing their infants and other abominations increased so fast, 
as to threaten their total extinction. In the Bengal government, 
extending over from thirty to forty millions of people, with all 
its influence and encouragement, not more than eighty converts 
have been made by the Protestant missionaries in seven years, 
and those were almost all Chandalas or outcasts from the Hin- 
doo religion, who were glad to get a pittance for their support,* 
*< for the perseverance of several of whom," their instructors 
say, " they thremble."f How different a scene do the Catholic 
missions present ! To say nothing of ancient Christendom, all 
the kingdoms and states of which w r ere reclaimed from Pagan- 
ism and converted to Christianity by Catholic preachers, and not 
one of them by preachers of any other description : what extensive 
and populous islands, provinces and states, were wholly, or in a 
great part, reclaimed frpm idolatry, in the East and in the West, 
soon after Luther's revolt, Jay Catholic missionaries ! But to 
come still nearer to our own time : F. Bouchet, alone, in the 
course of his twelve years labours in Madura, instructed and 
baptized twenty thousand Indians, while F. Britto, within fifteen' 
months only, converted and regenerated eight thousand, when 
he sealed his mission with his blood. By the latest returns 
which I have seen from the Eastern missionaries to the direct- 
ors of the French Missions Etrangeres, it appears that in the 
western district of Tonquin, during the five years preceding the 
beginning of this century, four thousand one hundred and one 
adults, and twenty-six thousand nine hundred and fifteen chil- 
dren, were received into the church by baptism, and that in the 

following, F. Diaz, with eleven companions, bound on the same mission, 
and falling into the hands of the Calvinists, met with the same fate. In- 
credible pains were taken by the ministers of New England to induce the 
Hurons, Iroquois, and other converted savages, to abandon the Catholic re- 
ligion;, when the latter answered them: "You never preached the word to 
us while we were P?igans ; and now that we are Christians, you try to de- 
prive us of it." 

* Extract of a Speech of C Marsh, Esq. in a committee of the H. of C. 
July 1, 1815. See also Major Waring's. remarks on Oxford Sermons, 
t Transact of Prot Miss, quoted in Edinb. Review, April, 180S- 



314 



Letter XXX. 



lower part of Cochinchina, nine hundred grown persons hai 
been baptized in the course of two years, besides vast numbers 
of children. The empire of China contains six bishops and 
some hundreds of Catholic priests. In a single province of it, 
Sutchuen, during the year 1796, fifteen hundred adults were 
baptized, and two thousand five hundred and twenty-seven Cate- 
chumens were received for instruction. By letters of a later 
date from the above mentioned martyr Dufresse, bishop of Ta- 
braca and Vic. Ap. of Sutchuen, it appears, that during the year 
1810, in spite of a severe persecution, nine hundred and sixty- 
five adults were baptized, and during 1814, though the persecu- 
tion increased, eight hundred and twenty-nine, without reckon- 
ing infants, received baptism. Bishop Lamote, Vic. Ap. of 
Fofcien, testifies that, in his district, during the year 1810, ten 
thousand three hundred and eighty-four infants, and one thou- 
sand six hundred and seventy-seven grown persons, were bap- 
tized, and two thousand six hundred and seventy-four Catechu- 
mens admitted. From this short specimen, I trust, dear sir, it 
will appear manifest to you, on which Christian society God 
bestows his grace to execute the work of the apostles, as well, 
as to preserve their doctrine, their orders and their mission. 

As to the wonderful effects which your visiter expects from 
the Bible SocietT/, and the three score and three translations into 
foreign tongues of the English translation of the Bible, in the 
conversion of the Pagan world, I beg leave to ask him, who is 
to vouch to the Tartars, Turks, and idolaters, that the Testa- 
ments and Bibles, which the society is pouring in upon them, 
were inspired by the Creator ? Who is to answer for these 
translations, made by officers, merchants, and merchants' clerks, 
being accurate and faithful ? Who is to teach these barbarians 
to read, and, after that, to make any thing like a connected sense 
of the mysterious volumes ? Does Mr. C. really think that an 
inhabitant of Otaheite, when he is enabled to read the Bible, 
will extract the sense of the 39 Articles or of any other Christian 
system whatever from it ? In short, has the Bible Society, or 
any of the other Protestant societies, converted a single Pagan 
or Mahometan by the bare text of Scripture ? When such a 
convert can be produced, it will be time enough for me to pro- 
pose to him those further gravelling questions which result from 
my observations on the Sacred Text, in a former letter to you. 
In the mean time let your visiter rest assured, that the Catholic 
church will proceed in the old and successful manner, by which 
she has converted all the Christian people on the face of the 
earth ; the same, which Christ delivered to his apostles and their 



Letter XXX. 



21$ 



successors : Go ye into all tks world and preach the Gospel to 
every creature. Mark. xvi. 15. On the other hand, how illusory 
the gentleman's hopes are, that the depravity of this age and 
country will be reformed by the efforts of the Bible Society, has 
been victoriously proved by the Rev. Dr. HoOk, who, with other 
clear sighted churchmen, evidently sees that the grand principle 
of Protestantism, strictly reduced to practice, would undermine 
their establishment. One of his brethren, the Rev. Mr. Gis- 
borne, had publicly boasted, that in proportion to the opposition, 
which the Bible Society had met with, its annual income had 
increased, till it reached near a hundred thousand pounds in a 
year : Dr. Hook, in return, showed, by lists of the convictions of 
criminals during the first seven years of the society's existence, 
that the wickedness of the country, instead of being diminished, 
had almost been doubled !* Since that period up to the present 
year, it has increased three-fold and four-fold, compared with its 
state before the society began. 



POSTCRIPT. 

I have now, dear sir, completed the second task which I un- 
dertook, and therefore proceed to sum up my evidence. Hav- 
ing then proved in my twelve former letters, the rough copies 
of which I have preserved, that the two alleged rules of faith, 
that of private inspiration and that of private interpretation of 
Scripture, are equally fallacious, and that there is no certain way 
of coming to the truth of divine revelation but by hearing that 
church which Christ built on a rock and promised to abide with for 
ever ; I engaged, in this my second series of letters, to demon- 
strate, which, among the different societies of Christians, is the 
church that Christ founded and still protects. For this purpose 
I have had recourse to the principal characters or marks of 

* List of capital convictions, in London and Middlesex, in the following 
years, from Dr. Hooks Charge, and the London Chronicle :— 



In the year] 1808 


1809 


1810 


1811 


1812 


1813 


1814 


1815 


1816 


1817 


Convictions! 728 


863 


884 


872 


998 


1012 


1027 


2299 


2592 


3177 



Capital convictions in England and Wales, during the former seven 
years, from Dr. Hook's Charge:— 

1 2723 j 3 238 1 3 1 58 1 3 1 G3 ] 39 1 3 1 4422 1 4025 [_ 
N. B. To the convictions, during the three last years, in London and 
Middlesex, are added those of Surry, in the London Chronicle, March 9, 



810 



Letter XXX. 



Christ's church, as they are pointed out in Scripture and formally 
acknowledged by Protestants of nearly all descriptions, no less 
than by Catholics, in their articles and in those creeds, which 
form part of their private prayers and public liturgy, namely, 
unity, sanctity, Catholicity and apostolicity. In fact, this is what 
every one acknowledges who says in the apostles' Creed, / be- 
lieve in the holy Catholic church ; and, in the Nicene Creed,* 1 
believe one Catholic and apostolic church. Treating of the first 
mark of the true church, I proved from natural reason, Scrip- 
ture, and tradition, that unity is essential to her ; I then showed 
that there is no union or principle of .union among the different 
sects of Protestants, except their common protestation against 
their mother church, and that the church of England, in particu- 
lar, is divided against itself in such manner, that one of its most 
learned prelates has declared himself afraid to say, what is its 
doctrine. On the other hand, I have shown that the Catholic 
church, spread as she is over the whole earth, is one and the 
same in her doctrine, in her liturgy, and in her government ; and. 
though I detest religious persecution, I have, m defiance of ridi- 
cule and clamour, vindicated her unchangeable doctrine, and the 
plain dictate of reason, as to the indispensable obligation of be- 
lieving what God teaches ; in other words, of a right faith : I 
have even proved that her adherence to this tenet is a proof both 
of the truth and the charily of the Catholic church. On the sub- 
ject of holiness, I have made it clear that the pretended Refor- 
mation every where originated in the pernicious doctrine of sal- 
vation by faith alone, without good works ; and that the Catholic 
church has ever taught the necessity of them both ; likewise 
that she possesses many peculiar means of sanctity, to which 
modern sects do not make a pretension, likewise that she has. in 
every age, produced the genuine fruits of sanctity ; while the 
fruits of Protestantism have been of quite an opposite nature : 
finally, that God himself has bore witness to the sanctity of the 
Catholic church, by undeniable miracles, with which he has il- 
lustrated her in every age. It did not require much pains to prove 
that the Catholic church possesses, exclusively, the name of C A- 
THOLIC, and not much more to demonstrate that she alone has 
the qualities signified by that name. That the Catholic church 
is also APOSTOLICAL, by descending in aright line from the 
apostles of Christ, is as evident as that she is Catholic. How- 
ever, to illustrate this matter, I have sketched out a genealogi- 
cal, or, as I call it, the apostolical tree, which, with the help of a 



See the Communion Service, in Com, Prayer, 



Letter XXX. 



217 



note subjoined, shows the uninterrupted succession of the Ca- 
tholic church in her chief pontiffs and other illustrious prelates, 
doctors, and renowned saints, from the apostles of Christ, during 
eighteen centuries, to the present period ; together with the 
continuation in her of the apostolical work of converting nations 
and people. It shows also a series of unhappy heretics and 
schismatics, of different times and countries, who, refusing to hear 
her inspired voice and to obey her divine authority, have been 
separated from her communion and have withered away, like 
branches, cut off from a vine, Avhich are fit for no human use. 
Dzek. xv. Finally, I have shown the necessity of an uninter- 
rupted succession from the apostles, of holy orders and divine 
mission, to constitute an apostolical church, and have proved 
that these, or at least the latter of them, can only be found in the 
holy Catholic church. Having demonstrated all this in the fore- 
going letters, I am justified, dear sir, in affirming that the motives 
of credibility, in favour of the Christian religion, in general, are 
not one whit more clear and certain than those in favour of the 
Catholic religion in- particular. But without inquiring into the 
degree of evidence attending the latter motives, it is enough for 
my present purpose that they are sufficiently evident to influence 
the conduct of dispassionate and reasonable persons, who are 
acquainted with them, and who are really in earnest to save their 
souls. Now, in proof, that these motives are at least so far clear, 
I may again appeal to the conduct of Catholics on a death-bed, 
who, in that awful situation, never wish to die in any religion 
but their own : I may also appeal to the conduct of so many 
Protestants in the same situation, who seek to reconcile them- 
selves to the Catholic church. Let us, one and all, my dear sir, 
as far as is in our power, adopt these sentiments in every respect 
now, which we shall entertain, when the transitory scene of this 
world is closing to our sight, and during the countless ages of 
eternity. the length, the breadth, and the depth of the abyss 
of ETERNITY ! " No security," says a holy man, " can be 
too great where eternity is at stake."* 

I am, &c. J. M. 
• *« Nulla satis magna securitas ubi periclitatur Etemitas " 



* 



916 



THE END 

OF 

RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY. 



PART III. 

LETTER XXXI. 
From JAMES BROWN, Esq. to the Rev. J. M. D. D. F. S. A. 

INTRODUCTION. 

Reverend Sir, 

The whole of your letters have again been read over in our 
society ; and they have produced important though diversified 
effects on the minds of its several members. For my own part, 
I am free to own, that, as your former letters convinced me in 
the truth of your rule of faith, namely the entire Word of God, 
and of the right of the true church to expound it in all questions 
concerning its meaning ; so your subsequent letters have satis- 
fied me that the characters or marks of the true church, as they 
are laid down in our common creeds, are clearly visible in the 
Roman Catholic church, and not in the collection of Protest- 
ant churches, nor in any one of them. This impression was, at 
first, so strong upon my mind that I could have answered you 
nearly in the words of king Agrippa, to St. Paul : almost thou 
persuadest me to become a Catholic, Acts xxvi. 28. The same 
appear to be the sentiments of several of my friends : but when, 
on comparing our notes together, we ^considered the heavy 
charges, particularly of superstition and idolatry, brought against 
your church by our eminent divines, and especially by the bishop 
of London (Dr. Porteus,) and never, that we have heard of, re- 
futed or denied, we cannot but tread back the steps we have 
taken towards you, or rather stand still, where we are, in sus- 
pense, till we hear what answer you will make to them : I speak 
of those contained in the bishop's well known treatise called A 
Brief Confutation of the Errors of the Church of Rome. With 
respect to certain other members of our society, I am sorry to 



Letter XXXII. 



219 



be obliged to say, that, on this particular subject, I mean the 
arguments in favour of your religion, they do not manifest the 
candour and good sense, which are natural to them, and which 
they show on every other subject. They pronounce, with con- 
fidence and vehemence, that Dr. Porteus's charges are all true, 
and that you cannot make any rational answer to them ; at the 
same time, that several of these gentlemen, to my knowledge, 
are very little acquainted with the substance of them. In short, 
they are apt to load your religion and the professors of it, with 
epithets and imputations too gross and injurious for me to repeat, 
convinced as I am of their falsehood. I shall not be surprised 
to hear that some of these imputations have been transmitted to 
you by the persons in question, as 1 have declined making my 
letters the vehicle of them ; it is a justice, however, which I 
owe them, to assure you, Rev. sir, that it is only since they have 
understood the inference of your arguments to be such as to 
imply an obligation on them of renouncing their own respective 
religions, and embracing yours, that they have been so unreason- 
able and violent. Till this period they appeared to be nearly 
as liberal and charitable with respect to your communion as to 
any other. 

I am, Rev. Sir, &c. JAMES BROWN. 

LETTER XXXII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
on the charges against the catholic church. 
Dear Sir, 

I should be guilty of deception were I to disguise the satis- 
faction I derive from your and your friends, near approach to the 
house of unity and peace, as St. Cyprian calls the Catholic 
church : for such I must judge your situation to be from the 
tenour of your last letter, by which it seems to me, that your 
entire reconciliation with this church depends on my refuting 
Bp. Porteus's objections against it : and yet, dear sir, if I were 
to insist on the strict rules of reasoning, I might take occasion 
of complaining of you from the very concessions which afford 
me so much pleasure. In fact, if you admit that the church of 
God, is, by his appointment, the interpreter of the entire Word 
of God, you ought to pay attention to her doctrine on every 
point of it, and not to the suggestions of Dr. Porteus or your 
own fancy in opposition to it. Again, if you are convinced that 



220 



Letter XXXII. 



the one, holy, Catholic and apostolical church is the true church 
of God, you ought to be persuaded that it is utterly impossible 
she should inculcate idolatry, superstition, or any other wicked- 
ness, and, of course, that those who believe her to be thus guilty 
are and must be in a fatal error. I have proved from reason, 
tradition, and holy Scripture, that, as individual Christians cannot 
of themselves judge with certainty of matters of faith, God has 
therefore provided them with an unerring guide, in his holy 
church ; and hence that Catholics, as Tertuliian and St. Vincent 
of Lerins emphatically pronounce, cannot strictly and consistently, 
be required by those who are not Catholics, to vindicate the 
particular tenets of their belief, either from Scripture or any 
other authority : it being sufficient for them to show that they 
hold the doctrine of the true church which all Christians are 
bound to hear. Nevertheless, as it is my duty, after the example 
of the apostles, to become all things to all men, 1 Cor. ix. 22, and 
as we Catholics are conscious of being able to meet our oppo- 
nents on their own ground, as well as on ours, I am willing, dear 
sir, for your and your friends' satisfaction, to enter on a brief 
discussion of the leading points of controversy which are agitated 
between the Catholics and the Protestants, particularly those of 
the church of England. I must, however, previously stipulate 
with you for the following conditions, which I trust you will 
find perfectly reasonable. 

1st. I require that Catholics should be permitted to lay down 
their own principles, or belief and practice, and, of course, to dis- 
tinguish between their articles of faith in which they must all 
agree, and mere scholastic opinions, of which every individual 
may judge for himself ; as, likewise, between the authorized 
liturgy and discipline of the church and the unauthorized devo- 
tions and practices of particular persons. I insist upon this 
preliminary, because it is the constant practice of your contro- 
versialists to dress up a hideous figure, composed of their own 
misrepresentations, or else of those undefined opinions and un- 
authorized practices, which they call Popery ; and then to amuse 
their readers or hearers with exposing the deformity of it and 
pulling it to pieces ; and 1 have the greater right to insist upon 
this preliminary, because our creeds and professions of faith, the 
acts of our councils and our approved expositions and Catechisms, 
containing the principles of our belief and practice, from which 
no real Catholic in any part of the world can ever depart, are 
before the public and upon constant sale among booksellers. 

2dly. It being a notorious fact that certain individual Chris- 
tians, or bodies of Christians, have departed from the faith and 



Letter XXXII. 



communion of the church of all nations, under pretence tha* 
they had authority for so doing,- it is necessary that their al- 
leged authority should be express, and incontrovertible. Thus, 
for example, if texts of Scripture are brought for this purpose, 
it is evidently necessary that such texts should be clear in them- 
selves and not contrasted by any other texts seemingly of an op- 
posite meaning. In like manner, when any doctrine or prac- 
tice appears to be undeniably sanctioned by a father of the 
church, for example, of the third or the fourth century, without 
an appearance of contradiction from any other father, or eccle- 
siastical writer, it is unreasonable to affirm that he or his con- 
temporaries were the authors of it, as Protestant divines are in 
the habit of affirming. On the contrary, it is natural to sup- 
pose that such father has taken up this with the other points of 
his religion from his predecessors, who received them from the 
apostles. This is the sentiment of that bright luminary St. 
Augustin, who says, " Whatever is found to be held by the 
Universal church, and not to have had its beginning in bishops 
and councils, must be esteemed a tradition from those by whom 
the church itself was founded."* 

You judged right in supposing that 1 have received some let- 
ters, containing virulent and gross invectives against the Ca- 
tholic religion, from certain members of your society. These 
do not surprise or hurt me, as the writers of them have probably 
not yet had an opportunity of knowing much more of this reli- 
gion than what they could collect from fifth of November, and 
other sermons of the same tendency, and from circulated pam- 
phlets expressly calculated to inflame the population against it 
and its professors ; but what truly surprises and afflicts me is, 
that so many other personages in a more elevated rank of life, 
whose education and studies enable them to form a more just 
idea of the religious and moral principles of their ancestors, bene- 
factors, and founders, in short of their acknowledged fathers and 
saints, should combine to load these fathers and saints with 
calumnies and misrepresentations which they must know to be 
utterly false. But, a bad cause must be supported by bad means ; 
they are unfortunately implicated in a revolt against the true 
church ; and not having the courage and self-denial to acknowl- 
edge their error and return to her communion, they endeavour 
to justify their conduct by interposing a black and hideous mask 
before the fair countenance of this true mother, Christ's spotless 
spouse. This is so far true, that when, as it often happens, a 
Protestant is, by dint of argument, forced out of his errors and 
• Lib. ii. De Bapt. 

18* 



222 



Letter XX ATI. 



prejudices against the true religion, if he be pressed to embrace 

it, and wants grace to do it, he is sure to fly back to those very 
calumnies and misrepresentations which he had before renounced. 
The fact is, he must fight with these, or yield himself unarmed 
to his Catholic opponent. 

That you and your friends may not think me, dear sir, to 
have complained without just cause of the publications and ser- 
mons of the respectable characters I have alluded to, I must in- 
form you that I have now lying before me a volume called 
Good Advice to the Pulpits, consisting of the foulest and most 
malignant falsehood against the Catholic religion and its pro- 
fessors, which tongue or pen can express, or the most enve- 
nomed heart conceive. It was collected from the sermons and 
treatises of prelates and dignitaries, by that able and faithful 
writer, the Rev. John Gother, soon after the gall of calumnious 
ink had been mixed up with the blood of slaughtered Catholics ; 
a score of whom were executed as traitors for a pretended plot 
to murder their friend and proselyte, Charles II ; a plot which 
was hatched by men who themselves were soon after convicted 
of a real assassination plot against the king. At that time, the 
parliaments were so blinded as repeatedly to vote the reality of 
the plot in question : hence it is easy to judge with what sort 
of language the pulpits would resound against the poor devoted 
Catholics at that period. But without quoting from former 
records, I need only refer to a few of the publications of the 
present day to justify my complaint. To begin with some of 
the numberless slanders contained in the No Popery Tract of 
the bishop of London, Dr. Porteus : he charges Catholics with 
" senseless idolatry to the infinite scandal of religion ;"* with 
trying "to make the ignorant think that indulgences deliver 
the dead from hell ;"t and that by means of " zeal for holy 
church, the worst man may be secured from future misery :"J 
and the bishop of St. Asaph, Dr. Halifax, charges Catholics 
with " Antichristian idolatry,§ the worship of demons, || and 
idol meditators.'"^ He, moreover, maintains it to be the doc- 
trine of the church of Rome, that "pardon for every sin, 
whether committed or designed, may be purchased for money.** 
The bishop of Durham, Dr. Shute Barrington, accuses them ot 
" idolatry, blasphemy, and sacrilege. "ft The bishop of Lan- 
dafF, Dr. Watson, impeaches the Catholic priests, martyrolo- 
gists, and monks, without exception, of the " hypocrisy of 



* Confutation, p. 39, edit. 1796. 
§ Warburton's Lectures* p. 191. 
•* Ibid. p. 341. 



t Ibid. p. 53. * Ibid. p. 53. 
II Ibid. p. 355. V Ibid. p. 35a 
tt Charge, p. 11, 



Letter XXXII. 223 



liars and he lays it down, as the moral doctrine of Ca- 
tholics, that " humility, temperance, justice, the love of God 
and man, are not laws for all Christians, but only counsels of 
perfection. "f He elsewhere says, " that the Popish religion is 
the Christian religion, is a false position.";); He has, more- 
over, adopted and republished the sentiments of some of his 
other mitred brethren to the same purpose. One of these as- 
serts, that, " instead of worshipping God through Christ, they 
(the Catholics) have substituted the doctrine of demons."^ 
" They have contrived numberless ways to make a holy life 
needless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, with- 
out repentance, provided they will sufficiently pay the priest for 
absolution."!! "They have consecrated murders, &c."TT 
" The Papists stick fast in filthy mire — by the affection they 
bear to other lusts, which their errors are fitted to gratify."** 
" It is impossible that any sincere person should give an impli- 
cit assent to many of their doctrines : but, whoever can prac- 
tice upon them, can be nothing better than a most shamefully 
debauched and immoral wretch."tt Another prelate, of later 
promotion, gives a comprehensive idea of Catholics, where he 
calls them " Enemies of all law, human and divine."JJ If such 
be the tone of the Episcopal bench, it would be vain to expect 
more moderation from the candidates for it : but I must contract 
my quotations in order to proceed to more important matter. 
One of these, who, while he was content with an inferior digni- 
ty, acted and preached as the friend of Catholics, since he has 
arrived at the verge of the highest, proclaims " Popery to be 
idolatry and Antichristianism ;" maintaining, as does also the 
bishop of Durham, that it is " the parent of Atheism, and of that 
antichristian persecution" (in France) of which it was cxclusvie- 
ly the victim.^ Another dignitary of the same cathedral, taking 
up Dr. Sparke's calumny, seriously declares that the Catholics 
are Antinomians,\\ which is the distinctive character of the Jum- 
pers, and other rank Calvinists. Finally, the celebrated city prea- 
cher, C. De Coetlogon, among similar graces of oratory, pronoun- 
ces that " Popery is calculated only for the meridian of hell. 
To say the best of it that can be said, Popery is a most horrid 

• Letter II. to Gibbon. 

t Bishop Watson's Tracts, vol. i. t Ibid. vol. v. Contents. 

5 Bishop Benson's Tracts, vol. v. p. 272. II Ibid. p. 273. 

Ibid. p. 282. 

•* Bishop Fowler, vol. vi. p. 386. tt Ibid. p. 387. 

tt Dr. Sparke, Bishop of Ely, Concio. ad Synod. 1807- 
5§ Discourses of Dr. Rennel, dean of Winchester, p. 140, &c. 
VU Charge of Dr. Hook, archdeacon, Sec. p. 5, &C 



234 



Letter XXXII. 



compound of idolatry, superstition, and blasphemy."* " T} 
exercise of Christian virtues is not at all necessary in its men* 
bers, nay, there are many heinous crimes, which are reckoned 
virtues among them, such as perjury and murder, when commit- 
ted against heretics."! And is such then, dear sir, the real 
character of the great body of Christians throughout the world 1 
Is such a true picture of our Saxon and English ancestors ? 
Were such the clergy from whom these modern preachers and 
writers derive their liturgy, their ritual, their honours and bene- 
fices, and from whom they boast of deriving their orders and 
mission also ? But, after all, do these preachers and writers 
themselves seriously believe such to be the true character of their 
Catholic countrymen, and the primitive religion 1 No, sir, they 
do not seriously believe it :| but being unfortunately engaged, 
as I said before, in an hereditary revolt against the church, which 
shines forth conspicuous, with every feature of truth in her coun- 
tenance, and wanting the rare grace of acknowledging their er- 
ror, at the expense of temporal advantages, they have no other 
defence for themselves but clamour and calumny, no resource for 

* Seasonable Caution against the abominations of the Church of Rome, 
Pref. p. 5. t Ibid. p. 14. 

t This may be exemplified by the conduct of Dr. Wake, archbishop of 
Canterbury. Few writers had misrepresented the Catholic religion more 
foully than he had done in his controversial works; even in his commen- 
tary on the Catechism, he accuses it of heresy, schism, and idolatry : but, 
having entered into a correspondence with Dr. Dupin, for the purpose of 
uniting their respective churches, he assures the Catholic divine, in his last 
letter to him, as follows: " In dogmatibus, prout a te candide proponuntur, 
non admodum dissentimus: in regimine ecelesiastico minus ; in funda- 
mentalibus, sive doctrinam, sive disciplinam spectemus, vix omnnio." Ap- 
pend, lo Mosheim's Hist. vol. vi. p. 121. The present writer has been in- 
formed, on good authority, that one of the bishops, whose calumnies are 
here quoted, when he found himself on his deathbed, refused the profered 
ministry of the primate, and expressed a great wish to die a Catholic. 
"When urged to satisfy his conscience, he exclaimed: What then will be' 
come of my lady and my children! Certain it is that very many Protestants, 
who had been the most violent in their language and conduct against the 
Catholic church, as for example, John, Elector of Saxony, Margaret, 
Queen ol Navarre, Cromwell, Lord Essex, Dudley, Earl of Northum- 
berland, king Charles II, the late Lords Montague, Nugent, Dunboyne, &c. 
did actually reconcile themselves to the Catholic church in that situation. 
The writer may add, that another of the calumniators here quoted, being 
desirous of stifling the suspicion of his having written an anonymous 
No Popery publication, when first he took part in that cause, privately 
addressed himself to the writer in these terms: How can you smpect k 
me of writing against your religion, when yon so well know my attachment 
to it! In fact, this modern Luther, among other similar concessions, has 
said thus to the writer: I sucked in a love for the Catholic religion with my 
m&tJitr's milk. 



♦ 



Letter XXXII. 



225 



shrouding those beauteous features of the church, but by placing 
before them the hideous mask of misrepresentation ! 

Before I close this letter, I cannot help expressing an earnest 
wish that it were in my power to suggest three most important 
considerations to all and every one of the theological calumnia- 
tors in question. I pass over their injustice and cruelty towards 
us ; though this bears some resemblance with the barbarity of 
Nero towards our predecessors, the first Christians of Rome, 
who disguised them in the skins of wild beasts, and then hunted 
them to death with dogs. But Christ has warned us as follows : 
It is enough for the disciple to be as his master ; if they have call- 
ed the master of the house Beelzebub : how much more them of his 
household. In fact, we know that those our above-mentioned 
predecessors were charged with worshipping the head of an ass, 
and of killing and eating children, &c. 

The first observation which I am desirous of making to these 
controvertists, is, that their charges and invectives against Ca- 
tholics never unsettle the faith of a single individual amongst 
us ; much less do they cause any Catholic to quit our commu- 
nion. This we are sure of, because, after all the pains and ex- 
penses of the Protestant societies to distribute Dr. Porteus's 
Confutation of Popery, and other tracts, in the houses and cot- 
tages of Catholics, not one of the latter ever comes to us, their 
pastors, to be furnished with an answer to the accusations con- 
tained in them ; the truth is, they previously know from their 
catechisms, the falsehood of them. Sometimes no doubt, a 
dissolute youth, from " libertinism of principles and practice," as 
one of the above-mentioned lords loudly proclaimed of himself, 
on his death bed ; and sometimes an ambitious or avaricious 
nobleman or gentleman, to get honour or wealth ; finally, some- 
times a profligate priest, to get a wife, or a living, forsakes our 
communion ; but, I may challenge Dr. Porteus to produce a sin- 
gle proselyte from Popery throughout the dioceses of Chester 
and London, who has been gained by his book against it : and I 
may say the same with respect to the bishop of Durham's No 
Popery Charges, throughout the dioceses of Sarum and Durham. 

A second point of still greater importance for the considera- 
tion of these distinguished preachers and writers is, that their 
flagrant misrepresentation of the Catholic religion, is constant- 
ly an occasion of the conversion of several of their own most 
upright members to it. Such Christians, when they fall into 
company with Catholics, or get hold of their books, cannot fail 
of inquiring whether they are really those monsters of idolatry, 
irreligion and immorality, which those divines have represent 



226 



Letter XXXIII. 



ed them to be ; when, discovering how much they have beei 

deceived in these respects, by misrepresentation ; and, in short, 
viewing now the fair face of the Catholic church, instead of the 
hideous mask which had been placed before it, they seldom fail 
to become enamoured of it, and, in case religion is their chief 
concern, to become our very best Catholics. 

The most important point, however, of all others for the con- 
sideration of these learned theologues, is the following : We 
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to be ex- 
amined on our observance of that commandment, among the 
rest, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour; 
supposing then these their clamorous charges against their Ca- 
tholic neighbours, of idolatry, blasphemy, perfidy, and thirst of 
blood, should then appear, as they most certainly will appear, 
to be calumnies of the worst sort, what will it avail their authors 
that these have answered the temporary purpose of preventing 
the emancipation of Catholics, and of rousing the popular hatred 
and fury against them ! Alas ! what will it avail them ! 

I am, Dear, Sir, yours, &c. J. M. 



LETTER XXXIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
on the invocation of saints. 

Dear Sir, 

The first and most heavy charge which Protestants bring 
against Catholics, is that of idolatry. They say, that the Ca- 
tholic church has been guilty of this crime and apostasy, by 
sanctioning the invocation of saints, and the worship of images 
and pictures : and that on this account they have been obliged 
to abandon her communion, in obedience to the voice from hea- 
ven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers 
of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Rev. xviii. 4. 
Nevertheless, it is certain, dear sir, that Protestantism was not 
founded on this ground either in Germany or in England : for 
Luther warmly defended the Catholic doctrine in both the afore- 
said particulars, and our English reformers, particularly king 
Edward's uncle, the duke of Somerset, only took up this pretext 
of idolatry, as the most popular, in order to revolutionize the 
ancient religion, which they were carrying on from motives of 
avarice and ambition. The same reasons, namely, that this 
charge of idolatry is best calculated to inflame the ignorant against 
the Catholic church, and to furnish a pretext for deserting her, 



Letter XXXIU 



227 



have caused Protestant controvertists to keep up the outcry 
against her ever since, and to vie with each other in the foulness 
of their misrepresentation of her doctrine in this particular. 

To speak first of the invocation of saints : archbishop Wake, 
[who afterward, as we have seen, acknowledged to Dr. Dupin, 
that there was no fundamental difference between his doctrine 
and that of Catholics] in his popular Commentary on the Church 
Catechism, maintains, that *' The church of Rome has other 
Gods besides the Lord."* Another prelate, whose work has 
been lately republished by the bishop of LandafT, pronounces of 
Catholics, that, " Instead of worshipping Christ, they have sub- 
stituted the doctrine of demons"^ In the same blasphemous 
terms, Mede, and a hundred other Protestant controvertists, speak 
of our communion of saints. The bishop of London, among 
other such calumnies, charges us with " Bringing back the hea- 
then multitude of deities into Christianity ;" that we " Recom- 
mend ourselves to some favourite saint, not by a religious life, 
but by flattering addresses and costly presents, and often depend 
much more on his intercession, than on our blessed Saviour's ;" 
and that, " being secure of the favour of these courtiers of hea- 
ven, we pay little regard to the King of it."f Such is the mis- 
representation of the doctrine and practice of Catholics on this 
point, which the first ecclesiastical characters in the nation pub- 
lish ; because, in fact, their cause has not a leg to stand on, if 
you take away misrepresentation ! Let us now hear what is 
the genuine doctrine of the Catholic church in this article, as 
solemnly defined by the Pope, and near three hundred prelates of 
different nations, at the council of Trent, in the face of the whole 
world ; it is simply this, that " The saints reigning with Christ 
offer up their prayers to God for men ; that it is good and useful 
suppliantly to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, 
help, and assistance, to obtain favours from God, through his 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alone our Redeemer and Sa- 
viour Hence the Catechism of the council of Trent, publish- 
ed in virtue of its decree, || by order of Pope Pius V, teaches, 
that " God and the saints are not to be prayed to in the same 
manner ; for we pray to God that he himself would give us good 
things, and deliver us from evil things ; but we beg of the saints, 
because they are pleasing to God, that they would be our advo- 
cates, and obtain from God what we stand in need of."*|[ Our 
first English Catechism for the instruction of children, says 

• Sect 2—3. t Bishop Watson's Theol. Tracts, vol. v. p. 272. 

t Brief Confut. pp. 23, 25. § Concil. Trid. Sees 25. de Invoc 

« Sess. 24. de Ref. c. 7. If Pars IV, Gtuis orandus. 



228 



Letter XXXIII. 



" W e are to honour saints and angels as God's special friends 
and servants, but not with the honour which belongs to God." 
Finally, The Papist Misrepresented and Represented, a work of 
great authority among Catholics, first published by our eminent 
divine Gother, and republished by our venerable bishop, Chal- 
loner, pronounces the following anathema against that idolatrous 
phantom of Catholicity, which Protestant controvertists have 
held up for the indenticai Catholic church. " Cursed is he that 
believes the saints in heaven to be his redeemers, that prays to 
them as such, or that gives God's honour to them, or to any 
creature whatsoever. Amen." " Cursed is every goddess wor- 
shipper, that believes the B. Virgin Mary to be any more than a 
creature ; that worships her, or puts his trust in her more than 
in God, that believes her above her Son, or that she can in any- 
thing command him. Amen."* 

You see, dear sir, how widely different the doctrine of Catho- 
lics, as defined by our church, and really held by us, is from the 
caricature of it, held up by interested preachers and controver- 
tists, to scare and inflame an ignorant multitude. So far from 
making gods and goddesses of the saints, we firmly hold it to be 
an article of faith, that, as they have no virtue or excellence but 
what has been gratuitously bestowed upon them by God, for the 
sake of his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, so they can procure no 
benefit for us, but by means of their prayers to the Giver of all 
good gifts, through their and our common Saviour, Jesus Christ. 
In short, they do nothing for us mortals in heaven, but what they 
did while they were here on earth, and what all good Christians 
are bound to do for each other, namely, they help us by their pray- 
ers. The only difference is, that as the saints in heaven are free 
from every stain of sin and imperfection, and are confirmed in 
grace and glory, so their prayers are far more efficacious for ob- 
taining what they ask for, than are the prayers of us imperfect 
and sinful mortals. In short, our Protestant brethern will not 
deny that St. Paul was in the practice of begging for the pray- 
ers of the churches to which he addressed his epistles, Rom. 
xv. 30, &c. and that the Almighty himself commanded the friends 
of Job to obtain his prayers for the pardon of their sins, Job xlii. 
8 : and moreover, that they themselves are accustomed to pray 
publicly for one another. Now these concessions, together with 
the authorized exposition of our doctrine, laid down above, are 
abundantly sufficient to refute most of the remaining objections 
of Protestants against it. In vain, for ^xample, does Dr. Por 



• Pap. Misrep. Abridg. p. 78. 



Letter XXXIII. 



229 



us quote the text of St. Paul, 1 Tim. ii. 5, There is one Media- 
or betweeen God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; for we grant 
at Christ alone is the Mediator of salvation ; but if he argues, 
om thence, that there is no other mediator of intercession, he 
ould condemn the conduct of St. Paul, of Job's friends, and of 
~'s own church. In vain does he take advantage of the ambigu- 
us meaning of the word worship, in Mat. iv. 10 ; because, if 
e question be about a divine adoration, we restrain this as strict- 
y to God, as he can do ; but if it be about merely honouring the 
aints, we cannot censure that, without censuring other passages 
f Scripture,* and condemning the bishop himself, who express- 
y says, " The saints in heaven we love and honour ."f In vain 
oes he quote Revel, xix. KV where the angel refused to let St. 
ohn prostrate himself, and adore him ; because, if the mere act 
'tself, independently of the evangelist's mistaking him for the 
Deity, was forbidden, then the three angels, who permitted Abra- 
am to bow himself to the ground before them, were guilty of a 
rime, Gen- xviii. 2, as was that other angel, before whom Josuah 
fell on his face and worshipped. Jos. v. 14. 

The charge of idolatry against Catholics, for merely honour- 
ing those whom God honours^ and for desiring them to pray to 
God for us, is too extravagant, to be any longer published by 
Protestants of learning and character ; accordingly the bishop 
of Durham is content with accusing us of blasphemy, on the 
latter part of the charge. What he says is this : " It is blas- 
phemy, to ascribe to angels and saints, by praying to them, the 
divine attribute of universal presence."! To say nothing of his 
lordship's new invented blasphemy, I should be glad to ask him, 
how it follows, from my praying to an angel or a saint in any 
place, that I necessarily believe the angel or saint to be in that 
place ? Was Elisha really in Syria when he saw the ambush 
prepared there for the king of Israel ? 2 Kings vi.. 9. Again, 

* The word worship, in this place, is used for supreme divine homage, as 
appears by the original Greek: whereas in St. Luke xiv. 10, the English 
translators make use of it for the lowest degree of respect : Thou sha.lt have 
worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee. The latter is the 
proper meaning of the word worship, as appears by the marriage service: 
With my body J thee worship, and by the designation of the lowest order of 
magistrates, his worship Mr. Alderman N. Nevertheless, as the word may 
be differently interpreted, Catholics abstain from applying it to persons or 
things inferior to God: making use of the words honour and veneration in 
their regard; words which, so applied, even bishop Porteus approves us. 
Thus it appears, that the heinous charge of idolatry brought against Catho- 
lics for their respect toward the saints, is grounded on nothing but the mi* 
taken meaning of a word' 

t P. 2'x t Charge 1810, p. 12, 

20 



230 



Letter XXXIII. 



we know that There is joy before the angels of God over one sinner 
that repenteth, Luke xv. 10. Now, is it by visual rays, or undu- 
lating sounds, that these blessed spirits in heaven know what 
passes in the hearts of men upon earth 1 How does his lordship 
know, that one part of the saint's felicity may not consist in con- 
templating the wonderful ways of God's providence with all his 
creatures here on earth ? But, without recurring to this suppo- 
sition, it is sufficient for dissipating the bishop's uncharitable 
phantom of blasphemy, and Calvin's profane jest about the length 
of the saint's ears, that God is able to reveal to them the prayers 
of Christians who address them here on earth. In case I had 
the same opportunity of conversing with this prelate, which I 
once enjoyed, I should not fail to make the following observation 
to him : my lord, you publicly maintain, that the act of praying 
to saints, ascribes to them the divine attribute of universal pre- 
sence ; this you call blasphemy : now it appears, by the articles 
and injunctions of your church, that you believe in the existence 
and efficacy of " sorceries, enchantments, and witchcraft, invented 
by the devil, to procure his counsel or help,"* wherever the con- 
juror or witch may chance to be ; do you, therefore, ascribe the 
divine attribute of universal presence to the devil ? You must 
assert this, or you must withdraw your charge of blasphemy 
against the Catholics for praying to the saints. 

That it is lawful and profitable to invoke the prayers of the 
angels, is plain from Jacob's asking and obtaining the angel's 
blessing, with whom he had mystically wrestled, Gen. xxxii. 
26, and from his invoking his own angel to bless Joseph's sons, 
Gen. xlvii. 16. The same is also sufficiently plain, with respect 
to the saints, from the Book of Revelations, where the four and 
twenty eiders in heaven are said to have, golden vials full of 
odours, which are the prayers of the saints. Rev. v. 8. The 
church, however, derived her doctrine on this and other points 
immediately from the apostles, before any part of the New Tes- 
tament was written. The tradition was so ancient and universal, 
that all those Eastern churches, which broke off from the cen- 
tral church of Rome, a great many ages before Protestantism 
was heard of, perfectly agree with us in honouring and invoking 
the angels and saints. I have said that the patriarch of Pro- 
testantism, Martin Luther, did not find any thing idolatrous in 
the doctrine or practice of the church with respect to the saints. 
So far from this, he exclaims, " Who can deny that God works 
great miracles at the tombs of the saints ? I therefore, with 

* Injunctions, A. D. 1559. Bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 89. Arti 
ties, ibid p. 180. 



Letter XXXIIL 



231 



the whole Catholic church, hold that the saints are to be honour- 
ed and invocated by us."* In the same spirit he recommends 
this devotion to dying persons, " Let no one omit to call upon 
me B. Virgin and the angels and saints, that they may inter- 
cede with God for them at that instant."f I may add that se- 
veral of the brightest lights of the established church, such as 
archbishop Sheldon and the bishops Blandford,J Gunning,^ 
Montague, &c. have altogether abandoned the charge of idola- 
try against Catholics on this head. The last mentioned of them 
says, " I own that Christ is not wronged in his mediation. It is 
no impiety to say, as they (the Catholics) do, Holy Mary, pray 
for me ; Holy Peter, pray for me ;"| whilst the candid preben- 
dary of Westminster warns his brethren " not to lead people by 
the nose, to believe they can prove Papists to be idolaters when 
they cannot."l[ 

In conclusion, dear sir, you will observe that the council of 
Trent, barely teaches that it is good and profitable to invoke the 
prayers of the saints ; hence our divines infer that there is no 
positive law of the church, incumbent on all her children to 
pray to the saints :** nevertheless, what member of the Catholic 
church militant will fail to communicate with his brethren of 
the church triumphant ? What Catholic, believing in the com- 
munion of saints, and that " the saints, reigning with Christ 
pray for us, and that it is good and profitable for us to invoke 
their prayers," will forego this advantage ! How sublime and 
consoling ! how animating is the doctrine and practice of true 
Catholics, compared with the opinions of Protestants ! We 
hold daily and hourly converse, to our unspeakable comfort and 
advantage, with the angelic choirs, with the venerable patriarchs 
and prophets of ancient times, with the heroes of Christianity, 
the blessed apostles and martyrs, with the bright ornaments of 
it in later ages, the Bernards, the Xaviers, the Teresas, and the 
Sales's : they are all members of the Carholic church. Why 
should not you partake of this advantage ? Your soul, you com- 
plain, dear sir, is in trouble ; you lament that your prayers to 
God are not heard : continue to pray to him with all the fervour 
of your soul : but why not engage his friends and courtiers to 
add the weight of their prayers to your own ? Perhaps his 

* In Purg. quorand. Artie Tom. i. Germet. Ep. ad Georg. Spalat. 
t Luth. Prep, ad Mort 

t See Duchess of York's Testimony in Brunswick's 50 Reasons. 

§ Burnet's Hist, of his own Tmes, Vol. i. p. 437. 

II Treat, of Invoc of Saints, p. 118. 

"ff l horndike, Just We ; gilts, p. 10. 

*• Petaviud, Suarez, Wall en burg, Muratori, Nat. Alex. 



233 



Letter XXXIV. 



Divine Majesty may hear the prayers of the Jobs, when he will 
not listen to those of an Eliphaz, a Bildad, or a Zophar. Job xlii. 
You believe, no doubt, that you have an angel guardian, appointed 
by God to protect you, conformably to what Christ said of the 
children presented to him : Their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father who is in heaven, Mat. xviii. 10 : address 
yourself to this blessed spirit with gratitude, veneration, and 
confidence. You believe also, that, among the saints of God, 
there is one of supereminent purity and sanctity, pronounced by 
an archangel to be, not only gracious, but " full of grace ;" the 
chosen instrument of God in the incarnation of his Sot», and the 
intercessor with this her Son, in obtaining his first mhacle, that 
of turning water into wine, at a time, when his " time" for appear- 
ing to the world by miracles, was " not yet come." John ii. 4. 
" It is impossible," as one of the fathers says, " to love the son, 
without loving the mother :" beg of her, then, with affection and 
confidence, to intercede with Jesus, as the poor Canaanites did, 
to change the tears of your distress into the wine of gladness, 
by affording you the light and grace you so much want. You 
cannot refuse to join with me in the angelic salutation : Hail 
full of grace, our Lord is with thee* nor in the subsequent ad- 
dress of the inspired Elizabeth : Blessed art thou among women, 
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Luke i. 42 : cast aside, then, 
I beseech you, dear sir, prejudices, which are not only ground- 
less but also hurtful, and devoutly conclude with me, in the 
words of the whole Catholic Church, upon earth : Holy Mary, 
mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our 
death. Amen. I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXXIV. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. $c. 
on religious memorials. 

Dear Sir, 

If the Catholic church has been so grievously injured by the 
misrepresentation of her doctrine respecting prayers to the saints, 
ehe has been still more grievously injured by the prevailing ca- 
lumnies against the respect which she pays to the memorials ot 
Christ and his saints, namely to crucifixes, relics, pious pictures 
and images. This has been misrepresented, from almost the 

* Luke i. 28. The Catholic version is here used, as more conformable 
to the Greek as well as the Vulgate, than the Protestant, which renders the 
passage: Hail thou who art highly favoured. 



Letter XXXIV. 



233 



I first eruption of Protestantism,* as rank idolatry, and as justifying 
the necessity of a Reformation. To countenance such misrep- 

|f resentation in our own country, in particular, avaricious courtiers 

ji and grandees seized on the costly shrines, statues and other or- 

h naments of all the churches and chapels, and authorized the 
demolition or defacing of all other religious memorials of what- 
ever nature or materials, not only in places of worship, but also 

L in market places and even in private houses. In support of the 
same pious fraud, the Holy Scriptures were corrupted in their 
different versions and editions,! till religious Protestants, them- 
selves, became disgusted with them,! ano ^ loudly called for a 
new translation. This was accordingly made, at the beginning 
of the first James's reign. In short, every passage in the Bible, 

J and every argument which common sense suggests against idol- 
atry, was applied to the decent respect which Catholics show to 
the memorials of Christianity. 

The misrepresentation, in question, still continues to be the 
chosen topic of Protestant controvertists, for inflaming the minds 
of the ignorant against their Catholic brethren. Accordingly, 
there is hardly a lisping infant, who has not been taught that the 

j Romanists pray to images, nor is there a secluded peasant 

* Martin Luther, with all his hatred of the Catholic church, found no 
idolatry in her doctrine respecting crosses and images: on the contrary, he 
warmly defended it against Carlostadius and his associates, who had de- 
stroyed those in the churches of Wittenberg. Epist. ad Gasp. Guttal. In 
the titlepages of his volumes, published by Melancthon, Luther is exhibi- 
ted on his knees before a crucifix. Queen Elizabeth persisted for many 
years in retaining a crucifix on the altar of her chapel, till some of her Pu- 
ritan courtiers engaged Patch, the fool, to break it: " no wiser man," says 
Dr. Heylin, (Hist, of Reform, p. 124,) "daring to undertake such a ser- 
vice." James I. thus reproached the Scotch bishops, when they objected 
to his placing pictures and statues in his chapel at Edinburgh: " You can 
endure Lions and Dragons {the supporters, of the royal arms) and Devils, 
(Q. Elizabeth's Griffins) to be figured in your churches, but will not allow 
the like place to patriarchs and apostles." Spotswood's History, p. 530. 

t See in the present English Bible, Colos. iii. 5. Covetousness which is 
idolatry : this, in the Bibles of 1562, 1577, and 1579, stood thus: Covetous- 
ness which is the worshipping of images. In like manner where we read, 
a covetous man, who is an idolater, in the former editions we read, a cove- 
tons man which is a worshipper of idols. Instead of, What agreement h dh 
, the temple of God with idols, 2 Cor. vi. 16: it used to stand, How agreeth 
! the temple of God with images. Instead of, Little children keep yourselves 
from idols, 1 John v. 21: it stood, during the reigns of Edward and Eliza- 
beth, Babes keep yourselves from images. There were several other mani- 
fest corruptions in this as well as in other points in the ancient Protestant 
Bibles; some of which remain in the present version. 

t See the account of what passed on this subject, at the Conference oi 
Hampton Court, in Fuller's and Collier's Church Histories, and in NeaFa 
History of the Puritans. 

so* 



234 



Letter XXXIV. 



who has not been made to believe, that the Papists worship 
wooden gods. The Book of Homilies repeatedly affirms that our 
images of Christ and his saints are idols ; that we " pray and 
ask of them what it belongs to God alone to give ;" and that " im- 
ages have beene and bee worshipped, and so, idolatry committed 
to them by infinite multitudes to the great offence of God's ma- 
jestie, and danger of infinite soules ; that idolatrie can not pos- 
sibly be separated from images set up in churches, and that God's 
horrible wrath, and our most dreadful danger, cannot be avoided 
without the destruction and utter abolition of all such images and 
idols out of the church and temple of God."* Archbishop Seeker 
teaches that " The church of Rome has other Gods, besides the 
Lord," and that " there never was greater idolatry among heath- 
ens in the business of image-worshipping than in the church of 
Rome."t Bishop Porteus, though he does not charge us with 
idolatry, by name, yet he intimates the same thing, where he 
applies to us one of the strongest passages of Scripture against 
idol worship : They that make them are like unto them ; and so 
is every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the 
Lord. Ps. cxiii.J 

Let us now hear what the Catholic church herself has so- 
lemnly pronounced on the present subject, in her general coun- 
cil of Trent. She says, " The images of Christ, of the Virgin 
Mother of God, and the other saints, are to be kept and retain- 
ed, particularly in the churches, and due honour and veneration 
is to be paid them : not that we believe there is any divinity or 
power in them, for which we respect them, or that any thing is to 
be asked of them, or that trust is to be placed in them, as the 
heathens of old trusted in their idols."§ In conformity with 
this doctrine of our church, the following question and an- 
swer are seen in our first catechism, for the instruction of 
children : " Question : May we pray to relics or images ? 
Answer : No ; by no means, for they have no life or sense 
to hear or help us." Finally, that work of the able Cath- 
olic writers Gother and Challoner, which I quoted above, The 

* Against the Perils of Idol. P. hi. — This admonition was quickly car- 
ried into effect, throughout England. All statues, bas-relievos, and crosses, 
were demolished in all the churches, and all pictures were defaced; while 
they continued to hold their places, as they do still, in the Protestant 
churches of Germany. At length common sense regained its rights, even 
in this country. Accordingly, we see the cross exalted at the top of its 
principal Church (St. Paul's,) which is also ornamented, all round it, with 
the statues of saints; most of the cathedrals and collegiate churches now 
contain pictures, and some of them, as for example, Westminster Abbey, 
carved images. 

t Comment on Ch. Catech. sect. 24. t P. 31. § Sess xxv 



Letter XXXIV. 235 

V Papist Misrepresented and Represented, contains the following 
anathema, in which 1 am confident every Catholic existing will 
readily join, " Cursed is he that commits idolatry ; that prays to 
images or relics, or worships them for God. Amen." 

Dr. Porteus is very positive that there is no Scriptural war- 
rant for retaining and venerating these exterior memorials, and 
he maintains that no other memorial ought to be admitted than 
the Lord's Supper* Does he remember the ark of the cove- 
nant, made by the command of God, together with the punish- 
i ment of those who profaned it, and the blessing bestowed on 
those who revered it ? And what was the ark of the covenant, 
after all ? A chest of Settim wood, containing the tables of 
j the law and two golden pots of manna ; the whole being co- 
vered over by two carved images of cherubims ; in short, it was 
a memorial of God's mercy and bounty to his people. But, says 
' the bishop, " The Roman Catholics make images of Christ and 
j of his saints after their own fancy : before these images, and 
j even that of the cross, they kneel down and prostrate themsel- 
' ves : to these they lift up their eyes, and in that posture they 
pray."f Supposing all this to be true ; has the bishop never 
read, that when the Israelites were smitten at Ai, Joshua fell to 
the earth upon his face, before the ark of the Lord, until the even 
tide, he and the elders of Israel, and Joshua said, Alas, O Lord 
God, <SfC. Jos. vii. 6. Does not he himself oblige those who fre- 
quent the above-mentioned memorial, to kneel and prostrate them- 
selves before it, at which time it is to be supposed they lift up 
their eyes to the sacrament and say their prayers 1 Does not 
he require of his people that " when the name of JESUS is pro- 
nounced in any lesson, &c. due reverence be made of all with 
lowness of courtesie ?"J And does he consider as well founded, 
the outcry of idolatry against the established church, on this and 
the preceding point, raised by the dissenters 1 Again, is not 
his lordship in the habit of kneeling to his majesty and of bow- 
ing with the other peers, to an empty chair when it is placed as 
his throne ? Does he not often reverently kiss the material sub- 
stance of printed paper and leather, I mean the Bible, because it 
relates to and represents the sacred word of God ? When the 
bishop of London shall have well considered these several mat- 
ters, methinks he will understand the nature of relative honour, 
by which an inferior respect maybe paid to the sign, for the sake 
of the thing signified, better than he seems to do at present ; 
and he will neither directly nor indirectly charge the Catholics 



• P. 28. t Confut p. 27. 

X Injunctions, A. D. 1559, n. 52. Canons 1603, n. 18. 



236 



Letter XXXIV. 



with idolatry, on account of indifferent ceremonies, which take ( 
their nature from the intention of those who use them. During ; 
the dispute about pious images, which took place in the eighth 
century, St. Stephen of Auxence, having endeavoured in vain to 
make his persecutor, the emperor Copronimus, conceive the na- 
ture of relative honour and dishonour in this matter, threw a 
piece of money, bearing the emperor's figure, on the ground, and 
treated it with the utmost indignity ; when the latter soon proved, 
by his treatment of the saint, that the affront regarded himself 
rather than the piece of metal.* 

The bishop objects, that the Catholics " make pictures of 
God the Father under the likeness of a venerable old man." 
Certain painters indeed have represented him so, as in fact he 
was pleased to appear so to some of the prophets, Isa. vi. 1 ! 
Dan. vii. 9 ; but the council of Trent says nothing concerning 
that representation, which, after all, is not so common as that ; 
of a triangle among Protestants, to represent the trinity. Thus 
much, however, is most certain, that if any Christian were ob- 
stinately to maintain, that the divine nature resembles the hu- 
man form, he would be an anthropomorphite heretic. The bi- 
shop moreover signifies, what most other Protestant controvert- ■; 
ists express more coarsely, that to screen our idolatry we have 
suppressed the second commandment of the Decalogue, and to 
make up the deficiency, we have split the tenth commandment 
into two. My answer is, that I apprehend many of these dis- 
putants are ignorant enough to believe that the division of the 
commandments, in their Common Prayer Book, was copied^ 
if not from the identical Tables of Moses, at least from his 
original text of the Pentateuch ; but the bishop, as a man of 
learning, must know that in the original Hebrew, and in the sev- 
eral copies and versions of it, during some thousands of years, 
there was no mark of separation between one commandment and 
another ; so that we have no rules to be guided by, in making 
the distinction, but the sense of the context, and the authority of 
the most approved fathers,! buih which we follow. In the mean 
time, it is a gross calumny that we suppress any part of the De- 
calogue ; for the whole of it appears in all our Bibles, and in all 
our most approved catechisms.j To be brief, the words, Thou 
shalt not make to thyself any graven thing, are either a prohibi- 

* Fleury, Hist. Ecc. L. xliii. n 41. 

t St. Augustin, Quaest. in Exod Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. vi. Hieron, in 
Ps. xxxii. 

t Catech. Roman ad Paroch. The folio Catech. of Montpelier. Pouajf 
Catech. Abridgment of Christian Doctrine. 



Letter XXXIV. 



237 



9 tion of all images, and, of course, those round the bishop's own 
\ cathedral of St. Paul, as likewise of all existing coins ; which 
^ 1 am sure he will not agree to ; or else it is a mere prohibition 
11 of images made to receive divine worship, in which we perfectly 
' agree with him. You will observe, dear sir, that I intend to include 
J relics, meaning things which have some way appertained to and 
" been left by personages of eminent sanctity, among religious 
memorials. Indeed the ancient fathers generally call them by 
1 that name. Surely Dr. Porteus will not say that there is no 
warrant in Scripture for honouring these, when he recollects that, 
I From the body of St. Paul were brought unto the sick, handker- 
chiefs and aprons, and the diseases departed from them, Acts, xix. 
1 12 ; and that, When the dead man was let down and touched the 
bones of Elisha, he revived and stood upon his feet. 2 Kings xiii. 21. 
' But to make an end of the present discussion : nothing but 
1 the pressing want of a strong pretext for breaking communion 
( with the ancient church could have put the revolters upon so ex- 
travagant an attempt as that of confounding the inferior and rela- 
tive honour which Catholics pay to the memorials of Christ and 
his saints, (an honour which they themselves pay to the Bible- 
book,) to the name of JESUS, and even to the king's throne) 
; with the idolatry of the Israelites to their golden calf, Exod, 
1 xxxii. 4, and of the ancient heathens to their idols, which they 
1 believed to be inhabited by their gods. In a word, the end for 
which pious pictures and images are made and retained by Cath- 
[ olics, is the same for which pictures and images are made and 
! retained by mankind in general, to put us in mind of the persons 
j and things they represent. They are not primarily intended for 
1 the purpose of being venerated ; nevertheless, as they bear a 
certain relation with holy persons and things, by representing 
them, they become entitled to a relative or secondary veneration ; 
' in the manner already explained. I must not forget one impor- 
j tant use of pious pictures, mentioned by the holy fathers, namely, 
1 that they help to instruct the ignorant.* Still, it is a point agreed 
1 upon among Catholic doctors and divines, that the memorials of 
' religion form no essential part of it.f Hence, if you should be- 

i * St. Gregory calls pictures ldiotarum libri. Epist. L. ix. 9. 

t The learned Petavius says: " We must lay it down as a principle, that 
images are to be reckoned among the adiphora, which do not belong to the 
substance of religion, and which the church may- retain or take away as 
she judges best." L. xv. de Incar. Hence Dr. Hawarden, Of Images, p. 

1 353, teaches with Delphinus, that if in any place, there is danger of real 
idolatry or superstition from pictures, they ought to be removed by the pas- 
tors; as St. Epiphanius destroyed a certain pious picture, and Ezechias do» 
strayed the brazen serpent. 



238 Letter XXXV. 

! come a Catholic, ^is I pray God you may, I shall never ask you, 

if you have a pious picture or relic, or so much as a crucifix in 
your possession : but then, I trust, after the declarations I have 
made, that you will not account me an idolater, should you see j 

I such things in my oratory or study, or should you observe how , 

tenacious I am of my crucifix, in particular. Your faith and } 
devotion may not stand in need of such memorials : but mine, 
alas ! do. I am too apt to forget what my Saviour has done and 
suffered for me ; but the sight of his representation often brings 
this to my memory, and affects my sentiments. Hence I would 
rather part with most of the books in my library, than with the 
figure of my crucified Lord. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXXV. 
To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 

i 

objections answered. 

Rev. Sir, 

I learn by a letter from our worthy friend, Mr. Brown, as 
well as by your own, that I am to consider you, and not him, 
as the person charged to make the objections, which are to be 
made, on the part of the church of England, against my theo- 
logical positions and arguments in future. I congratulate the 
society of New Cottage on the acquisition of so valuable a 
member as Mr. Clayton, and I think myself fortunate in having 
so clear-headed and candid an opponent to contend with, as his 
letter shows him to be. 

You admit, that, according to my explanation, which is no 
other than that of our divines, our catechisms and our councils 
in general, we are not guilty of idolatry in the honour we pay 
to saints and their memorials, and that the dispute between 
your church and mine upon these points, is a dispute about 
words rather than about things, as bishop Bossuet observes, 
and as several candid Protestants, before you, have confessed. 
You and bishop Porteus agree with us, that " the saints are to 
be loved and honoured ; on the other hand, we agree with you, 
that it would be idolatrous to pay them divine worship, or to pray 
to their memorials in any shape whatever. Hence, the only 
question remaining between us is concerning the utility of desir- 
ing the prayers of the saints : for you say it is useless, because 
you think that they cannot hear us, and that, therefore, the prac- 
tice is superstitious : whereas, I have vindicated the practice 



Letter XXXV. 



239 



i itself, and have shown that the utility of it no way depends on 
'the circumstance of the blessed spirits immediately hearing the 
addresses made to them. 

Still you complain that I have not answered all the bishop's 
objections against the doctrine and practices in question. My 
'reply is, that I have answered the chief of them : and whereas 
they are, for the most part, of ancient date, and have been again 
land again solidly refuted by our divines, I shall send to New 
! Cottage, together with this letter, a work of one of them, who, 
j for depth of learning and strength of argument, has not been 
surpassed since the time of Bellarmin.* There, Rev. sir, you 
will find all that you inquire after, and you will discover, in par- 
! ticular, that the worship of the angels, which St. Paul condemns 
in his Epistle to the Colossians, chap. ii. 18, means, that of the 
I fallen or wicked angels, whom Christ despoiled, ver. 15, and which 
was paid to them by Simon the magician and his followers, as 
the makers of the world. As to the doctrine of Bellarmin con- 
cerning images, it is plain that his lordship never consulted the 
author himself, but only his misrepresenter Vitringa ; otherwise, 
he would have gathered from the whole of this precise theolo- 
gian's distinctions, that he teaches precisely the contrary to that 
which he is represented to teach.f 

You next observe, that I have said nothing concerning the 
extravagant forms of prayer to the blessed Virgin and other 
saints, which Dr. Porteus has collected from Catholic prayer 
books, and which, you think, prove that we attribute an abso* 
lute and unbounded power to those heavenly citizens. I am 
aware, Rev. sir, that his lordship, as well as another bishop,} 
who is all sweetness of temper, except when Popery is men- 
tioned in his hearing, and indeed a crowd of other Protestant 
writers, has employed himself in making such collections, but 
from what sources, for the greater part I am ignorant. If I 
were to charge his faith, or the faith of his church with all the 
conclusions that could logically be drawn from different forms of 
prayer to be met with in the books of her most distinguished 
prelates and divines, or from the Scriptures themselves, I fancy 
the bishop would strongly protest against that mode of reason- 

* The true church of Christ, by Edward Hawarden, DD. S. T. P. The 
author was engaged in successful contests with Dr. Clark, bishop Bull, Mr. 
Leslie, and other eminent Protestant divines. The work has been lately 
xepublished in Dublin by Coyne. 

t See De Imag. L. ii. a 24. 

X The bishop of Hereford, Dr. Huntingford, who has squeezed a large 
quantity of this irrelevant matter into his examination of the Catholic 
Petition. 



340 



Letter XXXV. 



ing. If, for example, an anthropomorphite were to address him : 

you say, my lord, in your creed, that Christ " ascended into 
heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God," therefore it is 
plain you believe with me, that God has a human shape ; or if 
a Calvinist were to say to him, You pray to God that he " would 
not lead you into temptation," therefore you acknowledge that it 
is God who tempts you to commit sin : in either of these cases 
the bishop would insist upon explaining the texts here quoted ; 
he would argue on the nature of figures of speech, especially in 
the language of poetry and devotion; and would maintain, that 
the belief of his church is not to be collected from these, but from 
her defined articles. Make but the same allowance to Catholics, 
and all this phantom of verbal idolatry will dissolve into air. 

Lastly, you remind me of the bishop's assertion, that " neither 
images nor pictures were allowed in churches for the first hun- 
dred years." To this assertion you add your own opinion, that 
during that same period no prayers were addressed by Christians 
to the saints. A fit of oblivion must have overtaken Dr. Porteus 
when he wrote what you quoted from him, as he cannot be igno- 
rant that it was not till the conversion of Constantine, in the 
fourth century, that the Christians were generally allowed to 
build churches for their worship, having been obliged, during the 
ages of persecution, to practice it in subterraneous catacombs, or 
other obscure recesses. We learn, however, from Tertullian, that 
it was usual, in his time, to represent our Saviour in the character 
of the good shepherd, on the chalices used at the assemblies of 
the Christians :* and we are informed by Eusebius, the father of 
church history, and the friend of Constantine, that he himself 
had seen a miraculous image of our Saviour in brass, which had 
been erected by the woman, who was cured by touching the hem 
of his garment, and also different pictures of him, and of St. 
Peter and St. Paul, which had been preserved since their time.f 
The historian Zozomen adds, concerning that statue, that it was 
mutilated in the reign of Julian the apostate, and that the Chris- 
tians, nevertheless, collected the pieces of it, and placed it in 
their church.J St. Gregory of Nyssa, who flourished in the 
fourth century, preaching on the matyrdom of St. Theodore, de- 
scribes his relics as being present in the church, and his suffer- 
ings as being painted on the walls, together with an image of 
Christ, as if surveying them.§ It is needless to carry the history 
of pious figures and paintings down to the end of the sixth cen- 

* Lib. de Pudicitia, c. 10. t Hist. 1. vii. c. 1& 

X Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c. 21. § Orat. in Thood. 



Letter XXXVl 



241 



tury, at which time St. Augustin and his companions, coming to 
preach the Gospel to our Pagan ancestors, u carried a silver cross 
before them as a banner, and a painted picture of our Saviour 
Christ."* The above-mentioned Tertullian testifies, that at every 
movement and in every employment, the primitive Christians 
used to sign their foreheads with the sign of the cross,f and 
Eusebius and St. Chrysostom fill whole pages of their works 
with testimonies of the veneration in which the figure of the 
cross was anciently held ; the latter of whom expressly says, 
that the cross was placed on the altars}: of the churches. The 
whole history of the martyrs, from St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp, 
the disciples of the apostles, whose relics, after their execution, 
were carried away by the Christians, as -" more valuable than 
gold and precious stones, down to the latest martyr, incontes- 
tibly proves the veneration which the church has ever maintain- 
ed for these sacred objects. With respect to your own opinion, 
Rev. sir, as to the earliest date of prayers to the saints, I may 
refer you to the writings of St. Irenaeus, the disciple of St. Poly- 
carp, who introduces the blessed Virgin praying for Eve,|| to the 
apology of his contemporary St. Justin the martyr, who says, 
" We venerate and worship the angelic host, and the spirits of 
the prophets, teaching others as we ourselves have been taught,"Tf 
and to the light of the fourth century, St. Basil, who expressly 
refers these practices to the apostles, where he says, " I invoke 
the apostles, prophets, and martyrs to pray for me, that God may 
be merciful to me, and forgive me my sins. I honour and rev- 
erence their images, since these things have been ordained by 
tradition from the apostles, and are practised in all our churches."** 
You will agree with me, that I need not descend lower than the 
fourth age of the church. I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XXXVL 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
on transubstantiation. 

Dear Sir, 

It is the remark of the prince of modern controvertists, 
bishop Bossuet, that, whereas in most other subjects of dispute 

• Bede's Eccles. Hist. L i. c. 25. t De Coron. Milit. c. 3. 

$ In Orat. Quod Christus sit Deus. 
§ Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c. 15. Acta Sincer. Apud Ruin art. 
II Contra Haeres. 1. v. c. 19. % Apol. 2. prope Init. 

Epist. 205. t. iii. edit. Paris 
si 



242 



Letter XXXVL 



between Catholics and Protestants, the difference is less than i» 

seems to be, in this of the holy eucharist or Lord's Supper, it is 
greater than it appears.* The cause of this is, that our oppo- 
nents misrepresent our doctrine concerning the veneration of 
saints, pious images, indulgences, purgatory, and other articles, 
ill order to strengthen their arguments against us ; whereas their 
language approaches nearer to our doctrine than their sentiments 
do on the subject of the eucharist, because our doctrine is so 
strictly conformable to the words of Holy Scripture. This is a 
disingenuous artifice ; but I have to describe two others of a still 
more fatal tendency ; first, with respect to the present welfare of 
the Catholics, who are the subjects of them, and secondly, with 
respect to the future welfare of the Protestants, who deliberately 
make use of them. 

The first of these disingenuous practices consists in misrepre- 
senting Catholics as worshippers of bread and wine in the sacra- 
ment, and therefore as idolaters, at the same time that our ad- 
versaries are perfectly aware that we firmly believe, as an arti- 
cle of faith, that there is no bread nor wine, but Christ alone, 
true God, as well as man, present in it. Supposing, for a mo- 
ment, that we are mistaken in this belief, the worst we could be 
charged with, is an error, in supposing Christ to be where he is 
not ; and nothing but uncharitable calumny, or gross inattention, 
could accuse us of the heinous crime of idolatry. To illustrate 
this argument, let me suppose, that being charged with a loyal 
address to the sovereign, you presented it, by mistake, to one of 
his courtiers, or even to an inanimate figure of him, which, for 
some reason or other, had been dressed up in royal robes, and 
placed on the throne, would your heart reproach you, or would 
any sensible person reproach you with the guilt of treason in 
this case ? Were the people who thought in their hearts that 
John the Baptist was the Christ, Luke iii. 15, and who probably 
worshipped him as such, idolaters, in consequence of their error ? 
The falsehood, as well as the uncharitableness of this calumny 
is too gross to escape the observation of any informed and re- 
flecting man : yet is it upheld and vociferated to the ignorant 
crowd, in order to keep alive their prejudices against us, by 
bishop Porteus,f and the Protestant preachers and writers in ge- 
neral, and it is perpetuated by the legislature to defeat our civil 
claims \\ It is not, however, true, that all Protestant divines 

* Exposition of the doctrine of -the Catholic church, Sect. xvi. 
t He charges Catholics with " senseless idolatry," and with worshipping 
the creature instead of the Creator." Confut P. ii. c. I. 
t The Declaration against Popery, by which Catholics were excluded 



Letter XXXVI. 



243 



have laid this heavy charge at the door of Catholics for worship- 
ping Christ in the sacrament, as all those eminent prelates in 
the reigns of Charles 1. and Charles II. must be excepted, who 
generally acquitted us of the charge of idolatry, and more 
especially the learned Gunning, bishop of Ely, who reprobated 
the above signified declaration, when it was brought into the 
house of lords, protesting that his conscience would not permit 
him to make it.* The candid Thorndyke, prebendary of West- 
minster, argues thus on the present subject : " Will any Papist 
acknowledge that he honours the elements of the eucharist of 
God 1 Will common sense charge him with honouring that in 
the sacrament, which he does not believe to be there ?"f The 
celebrated bishop of Down, Dr. Jeremy Taylor, reasons with 
equal fairness, where he says, " The object of their (the Catho- 
lics') adoration in the sacrament is the only true and eternal God, 
hypostatically united - with his holy humanity, which humanity 
they believe actually present under the veil of the sacrament. 
And if they thought him not present, they are so far from wor- 
shipping the bread, 'that they profess it idolatry to do so. This 
is demonstration that the soul has nothing in it that is idolatrical ; 
the will has nothing in it but what is a great enemy to idolatry."! 

The other instance of disingenuity and injustice on the part 
of Protestant divines and statesmen, consists in their overlooking 
the main subject in debate, namely, whether Christ is or is not 
really and personally present in the sacrament ; and in the mean 
time employing all the force of their declamation and ridicule, 
and all the severity of the law to a point of inferior, or at least 
secondary consideration ; namely, to the mode in which he is 
considered by one particular party as being present. It is well 
known that Catholics believe, that, when Christ took the bread 
and gave it to his apostles, saying, THIS IS MY BODY, he 
changed the bread into his body, which change is called tran- 
substantiation. On the other hand, the Lutherans, after their 
master, hold that the bread and the rea{ body of Christ are uni- 
ted, and both truly present in the sacrament, as iron and fire are 
united in a red-hot bar.§ This sort of presence, which would 

from the Houses of Parliament, was voted by them during that time of na- 
tional frenzy and disgrace, when they equally voted the reality of the pre- 
tended Popish Plot, which cost the Catholics a torrent of innocent blood, 
and which was hatched by the unprincipled Shaftesbury, with the help of 
Dr. Tongue, and the infamous Oates; to prevent the succession of James 
II. to the crown. See Echards Hist. North's Exam. 

* Burnet s Hist. Own imes. t Just Weights and Measures, c. 19. 

X Liberty of Prophesying, Sect. 20. 

S D* Capt Babyl. Osiander, whose sister, Cranmer married, taught Im* 



244 



Letter XXXVI. 



be not less miraculous and incomprehensible than transubstan- 
tiation, is called consubstantiation : while the Calvinists and 
■church of England men in general (though many of the bright- 
est luminaries of the latter have approached to the Catholic doc- 
trine) maintain that Christ is barely present in figure, and re- 
ceived only by faith. Now all the alleged absurdities, in a man- 
ner, and all the pretended impiety and idolatry, which are attri- 
buted to transubstantiation, equally attaches to consubstantiation 
and to the real presence professed by those eminent divines of 
the established church. Nevertheless, what controversial preach- 
er or writer ever attacks the latter opinions ? What law ex- 
cludes Lutherans from parliament, or even from the throne 1 So 
far from this, a chapel royal has been founded and is maintained 
in the palace itself for the propagation of their consubstantiation 
and the participation of their real presence ! In short,. you may 
say with Luther, the bread is the body of Christ, or with (Islan- 
der, the bread is one and the same person with Christ, or with 
bishop Cosin, that " Christ is present really and substantially 
by an incomprehensible mystery,"* or with Dr. Balguy, that 
there is no mystery at all, but a mere " federal rite, barely signi- 
fying the receiver's acceptance of the benefit of redemption ;"f 
in short, you may say any thing you please concerning the eucha- 
rist, without obloquy or inconvenience to yourself, except what 
the words of Christ, this is my body, so clearly imply, namely, 
that he changes the bread into his body. In fact, as the bishop 
of Meaux observes, " the declarations of Christ, operate what 
they express ; when he speaks, nature obeys, and he does what 
he says : thus he cured the ruler's son, by saying to him, Thy 
son liveth ; and the crooked woman, by saying, Thou art loosed 
from thy infirmity ."J The prelate adds, for our further obser- 
vation, that Christ did not say, My body is here ; this contains 
my body, but, this is my body : this is my blood. Hence Zuin- 
glius, Calvin, Beza, and the defenders of the figurative sense in 
general, all except the Protestants of England, have expressly 
confessed, that, admitting the real presence, the Catholic doctrine 
is far more conformable to Scripture than the Lutheran. I shall 
finish this letter with remarking, that, as transubstantiation, ac- 
cording to bishop Cosin, was the first of Christ's miracles in 
changing water into wine ; so it may be said to have been his 
last, during his mortal course, by changing bread and wine into 
his sacred body and blood. I am, &c. J. M. 

puliation, or an hypnstatical and personal union of the bread with Christ's 
body, in consequence of which a person might truly sav: This bread is 
Christ* >body. * Hist.ofTransub.p.44. t Chargovii. t Variat. T. ii.p. 34. 



949 



LETTER XXXVII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 

ON THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE B. SACRAMENT. 

Dear Sir, 

It is clear from what I have stated in my last letter to yoi^ 
that the first and main question to be settled between Catholics 
and church Protestants is concerning the real or figurative pre- 
sence of Christ in the sacrament. This being determined, it 
will be time enough, and, in my opinion, it will not require a 
long time, to conclude upon the manner of his presence, namely, 
whether by consubstantiation or transnbstantiation. To con- 
sider the authorized exposition or catechism of the established 
church, it might appear certain that she herself holds the real 
presence ; since she declares, that " The body and blood of 
Christ are verily and indeed taken and received by the faithful 
in the Lord's Supper." To this declaration I alluded, in the 
first place, where I complained of Protestants disguising their 
real tenets, by adopting language of a different meaning from 
their sentiments, and conformable to those of Catholics, in con- 
sequence of such being the language of the sacred text. In fact, 
it is certain and confessed, that she does not, after all, believe 
the real body and blood to be in the supper, but mere bread 
and wine, as the same catechism declares. This involves an 
evident contradiction ; it is saying, you receive that in the sacra' 
ment, which does not exist in the sacrament :* it is like the speech 

* Dryden, in his Hind and Panther, ridicules this inconsistency as fol- 
lows: " The literal sense is hard to flesh and blood; 

" But nonsense never could be understood." 
Even Dr. Hey calls this " an unsteadiness of language and a seeming in 
consistency." Lect. vol. iv. p. 338. 

N. B. it is curious to trace in the Liturgy of the Established church her 
variations on this most important point of Christ's presence in the sacra- 
ment The first communion service, drawn up by Cranmer, Ridley, and 
other Protestant bishops and divines, and published in 1548, clearly ex- 
presses the real presence, and that " the whole body of Christ is received 
under each particle of the sacrament." Burnet, P. ii. b. I, 

Afterwards, when the Calvinistic party prevailed, the 29th of the 42 Ar- 
ticles of Religion, drawn up by the same prelates and published in 1552, 
expressly denies the real presence, and the very possibility of Christ being 
in the Eucharist, since he has ascended up to heaven. Ten years after- 
wards, Elizabeth being on the throne, who patronized the real presence, 
(see Heylin, p. 124,) when the 42 Articles were reduced to 39, this decla- 
ration against the real and corporal presence of Chiist was left out of the 
Common Prayer Book, for the purpose of comprehending those persons 
who believed in it, as was the whole of the former rubric, which explained 
that «' by kneeling at the sacrament no adoration was intended to any cor- 
21* 



246 



Letter XXXVII. 



of a debtor, who should say to his creditor, / hereby verily and 

indeed pay you the money I owe you ; but I have not verily and 
indeed the money to pay you with. 

Nothing proves more clearly the fallacy of the Calvanists and 
other dissenters, as likewise of the established church men in 
general, who profess to make the Scripture, in its plain and lite- 
ral sense, the sole rule of their faith, than their denial of the real 
presence of Christ in the sacrament, which is so manifestly and 
emphatically expressed therein. He explained and promised 
this divine mystery near one of the Paschs, John vi. 4, previous 
to his institution of it. He then multiplied five loaves and two 
fishes, so as to afford a superabundant meal to five thousand men, 
besides women and children, Mat. xiv. 21 ; which was an evi- 
dent sign of the future multiplication of his own body on the 
several altars of the world ; after which he took occasion to 
speak of this mystery, by saying, / am the living bread, which 
came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall 
live for ever : and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the 
life of the world. John vi. 51. The sacred text goes on to inform 
us of the perplexity of the Jews, from their understanding 
Christ's words in their plain and natural sense, which he, so far 
from removing by a different explanation, confirms by expressing 
that sense in other terms still more emphatical. The Jews there- 
fore strove amongst themselves, saying, How can this man give us 
his flesh to eat f Then Jesus said unto them : Verily, verily, 1 
say unto you : except ye eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink 
his blood, ye have no life in you. — For my flesh is meat indeed, 
and my blood is drink indeed. Ver. 52, 53, 55. . Nor was it the 
multitude alone who took offence at this mystery of a real and 
corporal reception of Christ's person, so energetically and re- 
peatedly expressed by him, but also several of his own beloved dis- 
ciples, whom certainly he would not have permitted to desert him 
to their own destruction, if he «ould have removed their difficulty 
by barely telling them that they were only to receive him by 
faith, and to take bread and wine in remembrance of him. Yet 
this merciful Saviour permitted them to go their ways, and he 
contented himself with asking the apostles, if they would also 
leave him. They were as incapable of comprehending the 
mystery as the others were, but they were assured that Christ ia 

poral presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." Burnet, P. ii. p. 39"2- 
So the liturgy stood for just 100 years, when, in 1662, during the reign of 
Charles II. among other alterations of the liturgy, which then took place, 
the old rubric against the real presence and the adoration of tbe sacramenl 
was again restored as it stands at present! 



Letter XXXVII. 



241 



ever to be credited upon his word, and accordingly they made 
that generous act of faith, which every true Christian will also 
make, who seriously and devoutly considers the sacred text before 
us. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, 
said : This is a hard saying : who can hear it ? From that time 
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. 
Then Jesus said unto the twelve : will ye also go away 1 Then 
Simon Peter answered him : Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast 
the words of eternal life. Ver. 60, 66, 67, 68. 

The apostles thus instructed by Christ's express and repeated 
declaration, as to the nature of this sacrament, when he pro- 
mised it to them, were prepared for the sublime simplicity of his 
words in instituting it. For, whilst they were at supper, Jesus 
took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, 
and said: take ye and eat: THIS IS MY BODY. And taking 
the chalice, he gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying : drink ye 
all of this; FOR THIS IS MY BLOOD OF THE NEW 
TESTAMENT, WHICH SHALL BE SHED FOR MANY 
UNTO THE REMISSION OF SINS. Mat. xxvi. 26, 27, 
28. This account of St. Matthew is repeated by St. Mark, xiv. 
22, 23, 24, and, nearly word for word, by St. Luke, xxii. 19, 
20, arfd St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 24, 25 ; who adds : Therefore 
whoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord un- 
worthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord 
— and eateth and drinketh judgment (the Protestant Bible says 
damnation) to himself. 1 Cor. xi. 27, 29. 

To the native evidence of these texts I shall add but two 
words. First, supposing it possible that Jesus Christ had de- 
ceived the Jews of Capharnaum, and even his disciples and his 
very apostles, in the solemn asseverations which he, six times 
over, repeated of his real and corporal presence in the sacra- 
ment, when he promised to institute it ; can any one believe that 
he would continue the deception on his dear apostles in the very 
set of instituting it? and when he was on the point of leaving 
them ? in short, when he was bequeathing them the legacy of his 
love ? In the next place, what propriety is there in St. Paul's 
heavy denunciations of profaining Christ's person, and of damna- 
tion, on the part of unworthy communicants, if they partook of 
it only by faith and in figure ? for, after all, the Paschal Lamb, 
which the people of God had, by his command, every year eat 
Bince their deliverance out of Egypt, and which the apostles them- 
selves eat, before they received the blessed eucharist, was, as a 
mere figure, and an incitement to -faith, far more striking, than 
eating and drinking bread and wine are : hence the guilt of pro 



248 



Letter XXXVII. 



failing the Paschal Lamb, and the numerous other figures of 
Christ, would not be less heinous than profaning the sacrament, 
if he were not really there. 

I should write a huge folio volume, were 1 to transcribe all the 
authorities in proof of the real presence and transubstantiation 
which may be collected from the ancient fathers, councils and 
historians, anterior to the origin of these doctrines assigned by 
the bshops of London* and Lincoln. The latter, who speaks 
more precisely on the subject, says, " The idea of Christ's 
bodily presence in the eucharist was first started in the beginning 
of the eighth century. In the twelfth century, the actual change 
of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, by the 
consecration of the priest, was pronounced to be a Gospel truth. 
The first writer who maintained it was Pascasius Radbert. It is 
said to have been brought into England by Lanfranc."f What 
will the learned men of Europe, who are versed in ecclesi- 
astical literature, think of the state of this science in England, 
should they hear that such positions as these, have been pub- 
lished by one of its most clebrated prelates 1 I have assigned 
the cause why I must content myself with a few of the number- 
less documents which present themselves to me in refutation of 
such bold assertions. St. Ignatius, then, an apostolical bishop 
of the first century, describing certain contemporary heretics, 
says, " They do not admit of eucharists and oblations, because 
they do not believe the eucharist to be the flesh of our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins."T. I pass over 
the testimonies, to the same effect, of St. Justin martyr,^ St. Ire- 
na3us,|| St. Cyprian,*!! and other fathers of the second and third 
centuries ; but will quote the following words from Origen, be- 
cause the prelate appeals to his authority, in another passage, 
which is nothing at all to the purpose. He says, then, " Manna 
was formerly given, as a figure ; but now, the flesh and blood of 
the Son of God is specifically given, and is real food."** I must 
omit the clear and beautiful testimonies for the Catholic doctrine, 
which St. Hilary, St, Basil, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerorn, 
St. Austin, and a number of other illustrious doctors of the fourth 
and fifth ages furnish ; but I cannot pass over those of St. Cyril 
of Jerusalem and St. Ambrose of Milan, because these occurring 
in catechetical discourses or expositions of the Christian doc- 
trine to their young neophytes, must evidently be understood in 
the most plain and literal sense they can bear. The former says 



• Page 38. t Elem of Theol. vol. ii. p. 380. 

t Ep. ad Smyrn. § Apolog. to Emp. Antonin. II L. v. C. 11. 

H Ep. 54 ad Cornel. ** Horn. 7. in Levit 



Letter XXXVII. 



249 



* Since Christ himself affirms thus of the bread, This is my 
body ; who is so daring as to doubt of it ? And since he affirms, 
This is my blood ; who will deny that it is his blood ? At Cana 
of Galilee, he, by an act of his will, turned water into wine, 
which resembles blood ; and is he not then to be credited when 
he changes wine into blood ? Therefore, full of certainty, let 
us receive the body and blood of Christ : for, under the form of 
bread, is given to thee his body, and, under the from of wine,*' 
his blood."* St. Ambrose thus argues with his spiritual chil- 
dren, " Perhaps you will say, Why do you tell me that I receive 
the body of Christ, when I see quite another thing ? We have 
this point therefore to prove. How many examples do we pro- 
duce to show you, that this is not what nature made it, but what 
the benediction has consecrated it ; and that the benediction is 
of greater force than nature, because, by the benediction, nature 
itself is changed ' Moses cast his rod on the ground, and it be- 
came a serpent ; he caught hold of the serpent's tail, and it re- 
covered the nature of a rod. The rivers of Egypt, &c. Thou 
hast read of the creation of the world : If Christ, by his word, 
was able to make something out of nothing, shall he not be 
thought able to change one thing into another ?"t But I have 
quoted enough from the ancient fathers to refute the rash asser- 
tions of the two modern bishops. 

True it is that Pascasius Radbert, an abbot of the ninth cen- 
tury, writing a treatise on the eucharist, for the instruction of his 
novices, maintains the real corporal presence of Christ in it ; 
but so far from teaching a novelty, he professes to say nothing 
but what all the world believes and professes. | The truth of 
this appeared, when Berengarius, in the eleventh century, among 
other errors, denied the real presence ; for then the whole church 
rose up against him : he was attacked by a whole host of emi- 
nent writers, and among others by our archbishop Lanfranc ; all 
of whom, in their respective works, appeal to the belief of all 
nations ; and Berengarius was condemned in no less than eleven 
councils I have elsewhere shown the absolute impossibility of 
the Christians of all the nations in the world being persuaded 
into a belief, of that sacrament which they were in the habit of 
receiving, being the living Christ, if they had before held it to 
be nothing but an inanimate memorial of him ; though, even by 
another impossibility, all the clergy of the natior,s were to com- 
bine together for effecting this. On the other h ind it is incon- 
testible, and has been carried to the highest degree of moral evi- 

* Catech. Mystagog. 4. t De his qui Myst. Init. c. 9 

t " Quod totus orbis credit et confitetur." See Perpetuite de la Foi, 



250 



Letter XXXVII. 



dence,* tliat all the Christians of all the nations of the world, 

Greeks as well as Latins, Africans as well as Europeans, except 
Protestants and a handful of Vaudois peasants have, in all ages,, 
believed and still believe in the real presence and transubstanti- 
ation. 

I ain now, dear sir, about to produce evidence of a different 
nature, I mean Protestant .evidence, for the main point under 
consideration, the real presence. My first witness is no other 
than the father of the pretended Reformation, Martin Luther 
himsilf. He tells us how very desirous he was, and how much 
he laboured in his mind to overthrow this doctrine, because, says 
he, (observe his motive,) " I clearly saw how much 1 should 
thereby injure Popery ; but I found myself caught, without any 
way of escaping: for the text of the Gospel was too plain for 
this purpose."! Hence he continued, till his death, to condemn 
those Protestants who denied the corporal presence, employing 
for this purpose sometimes the shafts of his coarse ridicule,! and 
sometimes the thunder of his vehement declamation and anathe- 
mas. § To speak now of former eminent bishops and divines 
of the establishment in this country ; it is evident from their 
works that many of them believe firmly in the real presence, 
such as the bishops Andrews, Bilson, Morton, Laud, Montague, 
Sheldon, Gunning, Forbes, Bramhall and Cosin, to whom 1 shall 
add the justly esteemed divine, Hooker, the testimonies of whom, 
for the real presence, are as explicit as Catholics themselves can 
wish them to be. I will transcribe in the margin a few words 
from each of the thrpe last named authors. || The near, or rather 

* See in particular the last named victorious work, which has proved the 
conversion of many Protestants, and among the rest of a distinguished 
churchman now living. 

t Epist. ad Argenten. torn. 4. fol. 502. Ed. Witten. 

t In one place he says, that " The Devil seems to have mocked those, to 
whom he has suggested a heresy so ridiculous and contrary to Scripture, as 
that of the Zuinglians," who explained away the words of the institution in 
a figurative way. He elsewhere compares these glosses with the follow- 
ing translation of the first words of Scripture: In principio Deus creavit 
ccclum et terram: — In the beginning the cuckoo eat the spa r tow and his 
feathers. Def. Verb. Dom. 

§ On one occasion he calls those who deny the real and corporal pre- 
sence; " A damned sect, lying heretics, bread-breakers, wine-drinkers, 
and soul-destroyers." In Parv. Catech. On other occasions he says: 
" They are indevilized and superdevilized." Finally he devotes them to 
everlasting flames, and bnilds his own hopes of finding mercy at the Tribu- 
nal of Christ on his having, with all his soul, condemned Carlostad, Zuin- 
glius, and other believers in the symbolical presence. 

■ Bishop Bramhall writes thus: " No genuine son of the church (of Eng- 
land) did ever deny a true, real presence. Christ said: This is my body, 



Letter XXXVII. 251 



close approach of these and other eminent Protestant divines to 
the constant doctrine of the Catholic church, on this principal 
subject of modern controversy, is evidently to be ascribed to the 
perspicuity and force of the declaration of Holy Scripture con- 
cerning it. As to the holy fathers, they received this, with her 
other doctrines, from the apostles, independently of Scripture : 
for, before even St. Matthew's Gospel was promulgated, the sac- 
rifice of the mass was celebrated, and the body and blood of 
Christ distributed to the faithful throughout a great part of the 
known world. 

In finishing this letter I must make an important remark on 
the object or end of the institution of the blessed sacrament : 
this our divine master tells us was to communicate a new and 
special grace, or life, as he calls it, to us his disciples of the 
new law. The bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of 
the world. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the 
Father; so he that eateth me, the same shall also live by me. 
This is the bread that came down from heaven : not as your fa- 
thers did eat manna, and. are dead : he that eateth this bread shall 
live for ever. John vi. 52, 58, 59. He explains, in the same 
passage, the particular nature of this spiritual life, and shows 
in what it consists, namely, in an intimate union with him, where 
he says, He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth 
in me and I in him. Ver. 57. Now the servants of God, from 
the beginning of the world, had striking figures and memorials 
of the promised Messiah, the participation of which, by faith and 
devotion, was, in a limited degree, beneficial to their souls ; 
such were the tree of life, the various sacrifices of the patriarchs 
and those of the Mosaic Law, but more particularly the Paschal 
Lamb, the loaves of proposition, and the manna of which Christ 
here speaks : still, these signs, in their very institution, were 
so many promises, on the part of God, that he would bestow 

and what he said we steadfastly believe. He said neither CON nor SUB 
nor TRANS: therefore we place these among the opinions of schools, not 
among the articles of faith." Answer to Militiaire, p. 74- — Bishop Cosin 
is not less explicit in favour of the Catholic doctrine. He says: " It is a 
monstrous error to deny that Christ is to be adored in the eucharist We 
confess the necessity of a supernatural and heavenly change, and that the 
signs cannot become sacraments but by the infinite power of God. If any 
one make a bare figure of the sacrament we ought not to suffer him in our 
churches." Hist, of Transub. Lastly, the profound Hooker expresses 
himself thus; "I wish men would give themselves more to meditate, with 
Bilence, on what we have in the sacrament, and less to dispute of the man- 
ner how. Sith we all agree that Christ, by the sacrament, doth really and 
truly perform in us his promise, why do we vainly trouble ourselves with 
bo tierce contentions whether by consubstantiation, or else by transubstan* 
tiation?" Eccles. Polit. B. v. 67 



252 



Letter XXXVUL 



«pon his people the thing signified by them ; even that incarnate 
Deity, who is at once our victim and our food, and who gives 
spiritual life to the worthy communicants, not in a limited mea- 
sure, but indefinitely, according to each one's preparation. The 
same tender love which made him shroud the rays of his divinity 
and take upon himself the form of a servant, and the likeness of 
man, in his incarnation ; and become as a worm and not a man, 
the reproach of men and the outcast of the people, in his lmmolalion 
on Mount Calvary, has caused him to descend a step lower, and 
to conceal his human nature also, under the veils of our ordinary 
nourishment, that thus we may be able to salute him with our 
mouths and lodge him in our breasts ; in order that we may thus, 
each one of us, abide in him and he abide in us, for the life of 
our souls. No wonder that Protestants, who are strangers to 
these heavenly truths, and who are still immersed in the clouds 
of types and figures, not pretending to any thing more in their 
sacrament, than what the Jews possessed in their ordinances, 
should be comparatively so indifferent, as to the preparation for 
receiving it, and, indeed, as to the reception of it at all ! No won- 
der that many of them, and among the rest Anihony Ulric, duke 
of Brunswick,* should have reconciled themselves to the Catho- 
lic church, chiefly for the benefit of exchanging the figure for 
the substance ; the bare memorial of Christ, for his adorable 
bodv and blood. 

I am, &c. T. M. 

LETTER XXXVIII. 

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
objections answered. 

Rev. Sir, 

Though I had not received the letter with which you have 
honoured me, it was my intention to write to Mr Brown, by 
way of answering bishop Portens's objections against the Ca- 
tholic doctrine of the blessed eucharist. " As you, Rev. sir, have 
in some manner adopted those objections, I address my answer 
to you. 

You begin with the bishop's arguments from Scripture, and 
say, that the same divine personage who says, Take, eat, this is 
my body, elsewhere calls himself a door and a vine : hence you 
argue, that, as the two latter terms are metaphorical, so the first 
is also. I grant that Christ makes use of metaphors when he 

• Lettres d'un Docteur Allemand, par Schett'macker, vol. i. p 393. 



Letter XXXVIII. 



253 



calls himself a door and a vine ; but then he explains thgt they 
are metaphors, by saying, / am the door of the sheep, by me if 
any man enter he shall be saved, John x 9 ; and again, / am the 
vine, you the branches : he that abideth in me, and I in him, beareth 
much fruit : for without me you can do nothing. John xv. 5. 
But, in the institution of the sacrament, though he was then 
making his last will, and bequeathing that legacy to his children 
which he had in his promise of it assured them should be meat 
indeed, and drink indeed ; not a word falls from him to signify- 
that his legacy is not to be understood in the plain sense of the 
terms he makes use of. Hence those incredulous Christians, 
who insist on allegorizing the texts in question, (professing at 
the same time to make the plain natural sense of Scripture their 
only rule of faith,) may allegorize every other part of the Holy 
Writ, as ridiculously as Luther has translated the first words of 
Genesis ; and thus gain no certain knowledge from any part of it. 
His lordship adds, that the apostles did not understand this insti- 
tution literally, as they asked no questions, nor expressed any 
surprise concerning it. True, they did not : but then they had 
been present on a former occasion, at a scene in which the Jews, 
and even many of the disciples, expressed great surprise at the 
annunciation of this mystery, and asked, How can this man give 
us his flesh to eat ? On that occasion we know that Christ tried 
the faith of his apostles, as to this mystery ;*when they gene- 
rously answered, Lord, to whom shall we go 1 Thou hast the 
words of eternal life. 

You may quote, after Dr. Porteus, Christ's answer to the mur- 
mur of the Jews on this subject : Doth this offend you ? If then 
you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before ? It 
is the spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profteth nothing. The 
words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John vi. 63, 
64. To this 1 answer, that if there were an apparent contradic- 
tion between this passage and those others in the same chapter, 
in which Christ so expressly affirms, that his flesh is meat in- 
deed, and his blood drink indeed, it would only prove more 
clearly the necessity of inquiring into the doctrine of the Catho- 
lic church concerning them. But there is no such appearance 
of contradiction : on the contrary, our controvertists draw an ar- 
gument from the first part of this passage, in favour of the real 
presence.* The utmost that can be deduced from the remaining 
part is, that Christ's inanimate flesh, manducated, like that of 
animals, according to the gross idea of the Jews, would not confer 

* Verite de la Relig. Cat. prouvee par l'Ecriture, par M. Des Mains, p. 163, 



254 



Letter XXXVIT1. 



the spiritual life which he speaks of : though some of the fathers 
understand these words, not of the body and blood of Christ, but 
of our unenlightened natural reason, in contradistinction to in- 
spired faith, in which sense Christ says to St. Peter, Blessed art 
thou, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my 
Father who is in heaven. Mat. xvi. 17. You add from St. Luke, 
that Christ says in the very institution, Do this in memory of me. 
Luke xxii. 19. I answer, that neither here is there any contra- 
diction : for the eucharist is both a memorial of Christ and the 
real presence of Christ. When a person stands visibly before 
us, we have no need of any sign to call him to our memory ; 
but if he were present in such manner as to be concealed from 
all our senses, without a memorial of him, we might as easily 
forget him, as if he were at a great distance from us. These 
words of Christ, then, which we always repeat at the consecra- 
tion, and the very sight of the sacramental species, serve for 
this purpose. 

The objections, however, which you, Rev. sir, and bishop 
Porteus chiefly insist upon, are the testimony 1 of our senses. 
You both say, the bread and wine are seen, and touched, and 
tasted, in our sacrament, the same as in yours. " If we cannot 
believe our senses," the bishop says, " we can believe nothing." 
This was a good popular topic for archbishop Tillotson, from 
whom it is borrowed, to nourish upon in the pulpit, but it will 
not stand the test of Christian theology. It would undermine 
the incarnation itself. With equal reason the Jews said of 
Christ, Is not this the carpenter's son ? Is not his mother called 
Mary ? Mat. xiii. 55. Hence they concluded that he was not 
what he proclaimed himself to be, the Son of God. In like 
manner, Josuah thought he saw a man, Josuah v. 13. and Jacob, 
that he touched one, Gen. xxxii. 24, and Abraham that he eat 
with three men. Gen, xviii. 8, when in all these instances there 
were no real men, but unbodied spirits, present ; the different 
senses of those patriarchs misleading them. Again, were not 
the eyes of the disciples, going to Emmaus, held so that they should 
not know Jesus? Luke xxiv. 16. Did not the same thing hap- 
pen to Mary Magdalen and the apostles ? John xx. 15. But in- 
dependently of Scripture, philosophy and experience show that 
there is no essential connexion between our sensations and the ob- 
jects which occasion them, and that, in fact, each of our senses fre- 
quently decieves us. How unreasonable then is it, as well as im- 
pious, to oppose their fallible testimony to God's infallible word ! # 

* For example, we think we see the setting sun in a line with our eyes, 



Letter XXXVIII. 



255 



But, the bishop, as you remind me, undertakes to show that 
'there are absurdities and contradictions in the doctrine of tran- 
substantiation ; he ought to have said of the real presence : for 
every one of his alleged contradictions is equally found in the 
Lutheran consubstantiation, in the belief of which our gracious 
queen was educated, and in the corporal presence, held by so 
many English bishops. He accordingly asks how Christ's 
body can be contracted into the space of a host ? How it can 
be at the right hand of his Father in heaven, and upon our al- 
tars at the same time ? &c. I answer, first, with an ancient 
father, that if we insist on using this HOW of the Jews, with re- 
spect to the mysteries revealed in Scripture, we must renounce 
our faith in it.* 2dly, I answer that we do not know what con- 
stitutes the essence of matter and of space. I say, 3dly, that 
Christ transfigured his body, on Mount Thabor, Mark ix. 1, 
bestowing on it many properties of a spirit, before his passion, 
and that after he had ascended up to heaven, he appeared to St. 
Paul on the road to Damascus, Acts ix. 17, and stood by him in 
the Castle of Jerusalem, Acts xxiii. 11. Lastly, I answer, that 
God fills all space, and is whole and entire in every particle of 
matter ; likewise, that my own soul is in my right hand and my 
left, whole and entire ; that the bread and wine, which 1 eat and 
drink, are transubstantiated into my own flesh and blood ; that 
this body of mine, which some years ago was of a small size, has 
now increased to its present bulk ; that soon it will turn into 
dust, or perhaps be devoured by animals or cannibals, and thus 
become part of their substance, and that, nevertheless, God will 
restore it entire, at the last day. Whoever will enter into these 
considerations, instead of employing the Jewish HOW, will be 
disposed with St. Austin, to " admit, that God can do much 
more than we can understand," and to cry out with the apostles, 
respecting this mystery : Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast 
the words of eternal life. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

but philosophy demonstrates that a large portion of the terraqueous globe, 
is interposed between them, and that the sun is 18 degrees below the hori- 
zon. As we trust more to our feeling than to any other sense: let any per- 
son cause his neighbour to shut his eyes, and then crossing the two first fin- 
gers of either hand, make him rub a pea, or any other round substance be« 
tween them, he will then protest that he feels two such objects. 
* Cyril. Alex, 1. 4, in Joan. 



256 



LETTER XXXIX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
communion under one kind. 

Dear Sir, 

I trust you have not forgotten, what I demonstrated in the 
first part of our correspondence, that the Catholic church was 
formed and instructed in its divine doctrine and rites, and espe- 
cially in its sacraments and sacrifice, before any part of the 
New Testament was published, and whole centuries before the 
entire New Testament was collected and pronounced by her to 
be authentic and inspired. Indeed, Protestants are forced to 
have recourse to the tradition of the church, for determining a 
great number of points which are left doubtful by the Sacred 
Text, particularly with respect to the two sacraments, which 
they acknowledge. From the doctrine and practice of the 
church alone, they learn, that though Christ, our pattern, was 
baptized in a river, Mark i. 9, and the Ethiopian eunuch was 
led by St. Philip into the water, Acts viii. 38, for the same pur- 
pose, the application of it by infusion or aspersion is valid, and 
that, though Christ says, He that BELIE VETH and is bap- 
tized shall be saved, Mark xvi. 16, infants are susceptible of the 
benefits of baptism, who are incapable of making an act of faith. 
In like manner respecting the eucharist, it is from the doctrine 
and practice of the church alone, Protestants learn, that though 
Christ communicated the apostles, at an evening supper, after 
they had feasted on a lamb, and their feet had been washed, a 
ceremony which he appears to enjoin on that occasion with the 
utmost strictness, John xiii. 8, 15, none of these rites are essen- 
tial to that ordinance, or necessary to be practised at present. 
With what pretension to consistency can they reject her doctrine 
and practice in the remaining particulars of this mysterious in- 
stitution ? A clear exposition of the institution itself, and of 
the doctrine and discipline of the church, concerning the con- 
troversy in question, will afford the best answer to the objections 
raised against the latter. 

It is true that our B. Saviour instituted the holy eucharist un- 
der two kinds ; but it must be observed that he then made it a 
sacrifice as well as a sacrament, and that he ordained priests, 
namely, his twelve apostles, (for none else but they were present 
on the occasion) to consecrate this sacrament and offer this 
sacrifice. Now, for the latter purpose, namely, a sacrifice, it 
was requsite that a victim should be really present, and, at least, 



Letter XXXlX. 



257 



mystically immolated, which was then, and is & till , performed in 
the mass, by the» symbolical disunion, or separate consecration 
of the body and the blood. ' It was requisite, also, for the com- 
pletion of the sacrifice, that the priests who had immolated the 
victim, by mystically separating its body and its blood,, should 
consummate it in both these kinds. Hence it is seen, that the 
command of Christ, on which our opponents lay so much stress, 
drink ye all of this, regards the apostles, as priests, and not the 
xaity, as communicants.* True it is, that when Christ promised 
this sacrament to the faithful in general, he promised, in express 
terms, both his body and his blood, John vi. : but this does not 
imply that they must, therefore, receive them under the different 
appearances of bread and wine. For as the council of Trent 
teaches, " He who said, Unless you shall eat the Jlesh of the Son 
of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you, has 
likewise, said, If any one shall eat of this bread, he shall live for 
ever. And he who has said, Whoso eateth my flesh, and drink- 
eth my blood, hath life everlasting, has also said, The bread which 
I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. And lastly, he 
who has said, He who eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, 
abideth in me and I in him : has nevertheless said, He who eat- 
eth this bread shall live for ever."f 

The truth is, dear sir, after all the reproaches of the bishop 
of Durham concerning our alleged sacrilege, in suppressing half 
a sacrament, and the general complaint of Protestants, of our 
rubbing the laity of the cup of salvation,! that the precious body 
and blood, being equally and entirely present under each spe- 
cies, is equally and entirely given to the faithful, whichever they 
receive : whereas the Calvinist and Anglicans do not so much 
as pretend to communicate either the real body or the blood ; but 
present mere types or memorials of them. I do not deny, that, 
in their mere figurative system, there may be some reason for 
receiving the liquid as well as the solid substance, since the for- 
mer may appear to represent more aptly the blood, and the latter 
the body ; but to us Caltholics, who possess the reality of them 

* The acute Apologist of the Quakers has observed, how inconclusively 
Protestants argue from the words of the institution. He says: " I would 
gladly know how, from the words, they can be certainly resolved that these 
words (Do this) must be understood of the clergy. Take, bless, and break 
this bread, and give it to others; but to the laity only: Take and eat, but 
do not bless," &c. Barclay's Apology, Prop. xiii. p. 7 

1 Sess xxi. c. 1. 

t Conformably to the above doctrine, neither our priests nor our bishops 
receive under more than one kind, when they do not offer up the holy sac- 
rifice. 

22* 



258 



Letter XXXIX. 



both, their species or outward appearance is no more than a mat- 
ter of changeable discipline. « 

It is the sentiment of the great lights of the church, St. Chry- 
sostom, St. Austin, St. Jerom, &c. and seems clear from the 
text, that when Christ, on the day of his resurrection, took bread, 
and blessed and brake, and gave it to Cleophas and the other dis- 
ciple, whose guest he was at Emmaus,'on his doing which their 
eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their 
sight, Luke xxiv. 30, 31, he administered the holy commu- 
nion to them under the form of bread alone. In like manner, it 
is written of the baptized convert to Jerusalem, that, they were 
persevering in the doctrine of the apostles, and in the commu- 
nication of the BREAKING OF BREAD, and in prayer, 
Acts ii. 42 ; and of tile religious meeting at Troas : on the first 
. day of the week, when we were assembled to BREAK BREAD, 
Acts xx. 7, without any mention of the other species. These 
passages plainly signify that the apostles were accustomed, some- 
times at least, to give the sacrament under one kind alone, though 
bishop Porteus has not the candour to confess it. Another more 
important passage for communion under either kind he en- 
tirely overlooks, where the apostle says, Whosoever shall eat this 
bread, OR drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty 
of the body and the blood of the Lord* True it is, that, in the 
English Bible, the text is here corrupted, the conjunctive AND 
being put for the disjunctive OR, contrary to the original Greek, 
as well as to the Latin Vulgate, to the version of Beza, &c. ; 
but as his lordship could not be ignorant of this corruption and 
the importance of the genuine text, it is inexcusable in him to 
have passed it over unnoticed. 

The whole series of ecclesiastical history proves that the Ca- 

* H Ttwrj, or drink, 1 Cor. xi. 27. The Rev. Mr. Grier, who has at- 
tempted to vindicate the purity of the English Protestant Bible, has noth- 
ing "else to say for this alteration of St. Paul's Epistle, than that in what 
they falsely call " the parallel texts of Luke and Matthew," the conjunc- 
tive and occurs! Grier's Answer to Ward's Errata, p. 13. I may here 
notice the horrid and notorious misrepresentation of the Catholic doctrine 
concerning the Eucharist, of which two living dignitaries are guilty in 
their publications. The bishop of Lincoln says: " Papists contend that 
the mere receiving of the Lord's Supper merits the remission of sin, ex 
bpere operate), as it were mechanically, whatever may be the chaiacter or 
disposition of the communicants." Elem. of Theol. vol. ii. p. 4G1. Dr. 
Hey repeats the charge in nearly the same words. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 
35'x What Catholic will not lift up his hands in amazement at the gross- 
ness of this calumny, knowing, as he does, from his catechism and all his 
books, what purity of soul, and how much greater a preparation is required 
for the reception of our sacrament than Protestants require for receiving 
theirs. See Concil. Trid. Sess. xiii. c. 7. Cat. Rom. Douay Catech., &c. . 



Letter XXXIX. 



259 



tholic church, from the time of the apostles down to the present, 
ever firmly believing that the whole body, blood, soul and divin- 
ity of Jesus Christ, equally subsist under each of the species or 
appearances of bread and wine, regarded it as a mere matter of 
discipline, which of them was to be received in the holy sacra- 
ment. It appears from Tertullian, in the second century,* from 
St. Dennis of Alexandria,f and St. Cyprian,! in the third ; from 
St. Basil§ and St. Chrysostom, in the fourth, - &c.|| that the 
blessed sacrament, under the form of bread, was preserved in 
the oratories and houses of the primitive Christians, for private 
communion, and for the viaticum in danger of death. There 
are instances also of its being carried on the breast, at sea, in 
the orarium or neckcloth.^]" On the other hand, as it was the 
custom to give the B. Sacrament to bapflzed children, it was 
administered to those who were quite infants, by a drop out of 
the chalice.** On the same principle, it being discovered, in 
the fifth century, that certain Manichaean heretics, who had come 
to Rome from Africa, objected to the sacramental cup, from an 
erroneous and wicked opinion, Pope Leo ordered them to be ex- 
cluded from the communion entirely ,ff and Pope Gelasius re- 
quired all his flock to receive under both kinds \% It appears, 
that in the twelfth century, only the officiating priest and infants 
received under the form of wine, which discipline was confirmed 
at the beginning of the fifteenth by the Council of Constance, 
on account of the profanations, and other evils resulting from the 
general reception of it in that form. Soon after this, the more or- 
derly sect of the Hussites, namely, the Calixtins, professing 
their obedience to the church in other respects, and petitioning 
the council of Basil to be indulged in the use ef the chalice, this 
was granted them.||| In like manner Pope Pius IV, at the re- 
quest of the emperor Ferdinand, authorized several bishops of 

* Ad Uxor, h ii. t Apud. Euseb. 1. iv. c. 44. t De Lapsis 

§ Epist. ad Cesar. II Apud. Soz. I. viii. c. 5. 

St. Ambrus. In obit. Frat — It appears also that St. Birinus, the apos- 
tle of the West Saxons, brought the blessed sacrament with him into this 
Island in an Orarium. Gul. Malm. Vit. Pontif. Florent. Wigorn, Higden, 
&c. ** St. Cypr. de Laps. 

tt Sermo. iv. de Quadrag. tt Decret. Comperimus Dist. iii. 

§§ Dr. Porteus, Dr. Croomber, Kemnitius, &c. accuse this council of de- 
creeing that « notwithstanding (for so they express it) our Saviour minis- 
tered in both kinds, one only shall, in future, be administered to the laity:'* 
as if the council opposed its authority to that of Christ; whereas it barely 
defines that some circumstances of the institutions (namely, that it took 
place, after supper, that the apostles received 'without being fasting, and 
that both species were consecrated) are not obligatory on all Christians. Sea 
Can. xiii. till Sess. ii, 



260 



Letter XXXIX. 



Germany to allow the use of the cup to those persons of their 
respective dioceses who desired it.* The French kings, since 
the reign of Philip, have had the privilege of receiving under 
both kinds, at their coronation and at their death f The officia- 
ting deacon and sub-deacon of St. Dennis, and all the monks of 
the order of Cluni, who serve the altar, enjoy the same.J 

From the above statement bishop Porteus will learn, if not 
that the manner of receiving the sacrament under one or the 
other kind, or under both kinds, is a mere matter of variable dis- 
cipline, at least that the doctrine and the practice of the Catho- 
lic church are consistent with each other. I am now going to 
produce evidence of another kind, which, after all his, and the 
bishop of Durham's anathemas against us, on account of this 
doctrine and discipline, will demonstrate, that, conformably with 
the declarations of the three principal denominations of Pro- 
testants, the point at issue is a mere matter of discipline, or else 
that they are utterly inconsistent with themselves. 

To begin with Luther : he reproaches his disciple Carlostad, 
who in his absence had introduced some new religious changes 
at Wittenberg, with having " placed Christianity in things of no 
account, such as communicating under both kinds" &c.§ On an- 
other occasion, he writes, " if a council did ordain or permit 
both kinds, in spite of the council, we would take but one, or 
take neither, and curse those who should take both."|| Second- 
ly, the Calvinists of France, in their synod at Poictiers in 1560, 
decreed thus : " the bread of our Lord's Supper ought to be ad- 
ministered to those who cannot drink wine, on their making a 
protestation that they do not refrain from contempt. ^[ Lastly, 
by separate acts o*f that parliament and that king, who estab- 
lished the Protestant religion in England, and byname, commu- 
nion in both kinds, it is provided that the latter should only be 
commonly so delivered and ministered, and an exception is made 
in case " necessity did otherwise require."** Now 1 need not 
observe, that, if the use of the cup were, by the appointment oj 
Christ, an essential part of the sacrament, no necessity can ever 
be pleaded in bar of that appointment, and men might as well 

* Mem. Granv. t. xiii. Odorhainal. t Annal. Pagi 

t Nat. Alex. t. i. p. 430. § Epist. ad Gasp. Gustol. 

II Form. Miss. t. ii. pp. 384, 386. IT On the Lord's Supper, c iii. p. 7. 

'* Burnet's Hist, of Reform. Part. ii. p. 41. Heylin's Hist, of Reform, 
p. 58. For the proclamation, see bishop Sparrow's Collection, p. 17. — 
N B. The writer has heard of British made wine being frequently used by 
Church ministers in their sacrament, for realvrine. The missionaries, who 
were sent to Otaheite, used ihe bread fruit for real bread on the like occa- 
sion. See Voyage of the ship Duff. 



Letter XL. 261 

pretend to celebrate the eucharist without bread as without 
wine, or to confer the sacrament of baptism without water. 
The dilemma is inevitable. Either the ministration of the sa- 
crament under one or under both kinds is a matter of change- 
able discipline, or each of the three principal denominations of 
Protestants has contradicted itself. 1 should be glad to know 
what part of the alternative his lordship may choose. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XL. 

To JAMES BROWN, Esq. 
on the sacrifce of the new law. 

Dear Sir, 

The bishop of London leads me next to the consideration of 
the sacrifice of the new law, commonly called TH E IVL\SS, on 
which, however, he is brief, and evidently embarrassed. As I 
have already touched upon this subject, in treating of the means 
of sanctification in the Catholic church, I shall be as brief upon 
\t as I well can. 

A sacrifice is an offering up and immolation of a living ani- 
mal, or other sensible thing, to God, in testimony that he is the 
master of life and death, the Lord of us and all things. It is 
evidently a more expressive act of the creature's homage to his 
Creator, as well as one more impressive on the mind of the 
creature itself than mere prayer is, and therefore it was reveal- 
ed by God to the patriarchs, at the beginning of the world, and 
afterwards more strictly enjoined by him to his chosen people, 
m the revelation of his written law to Moses, as the most ac- 
ceptable and efficacious worship that could be offered up to his 
Divine Majesty. The tradition of this primitive ordinance, and 
the notion of its advantageousness, have been so universal, that 
it has been practiced, in one form or other, in every age from 
our first parents down to the present, and by every people 
whether civilized or barbarous, except modern Protestants. 
For when the nations of the earth changed the glory of the in- 
corruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, 
and of birds and fourfooted beasts, Rom. i. 23, they continued 
the rite of sacrifice, and transferred it to these unworthy objects 
of their idolatry. From the whole of this I infer, that it would 
have been truly surprising, if, under the most perfect dispensa- 
tion of God's benefits to men, the new law, he had left them 
destitute of sacrifice. But he has not so left them ; on the con- 



262 



Letter 'XL. 



trary, that prophecy of Malachy is evidently verified in the Ca- 
tholic church, spread as it is over the surface of the earth : 
From the rising of the sun even to the going down thereof, my 
name is great among the Gentiles ; and, in every place, there is 
sacrifice ; and there is offered to my name a clean oblation. Malac. 
i. 11. If Protestants say, we have the sacrifice of Christ's 
death ; I answer, so had the servants of God under the law oi 
nature and the written law : for it is impossible that with the 
blood of oxen and goats sin should be taken away : nevertheless, 
they had perpetual sacrifices of animals to represent the death 
of Christ, and to apply the fruits of it to their souls ; in the 
same manner, Catholics have Christ himself really present, and 
mystically offered on their altars daily, for the same ends, but 
in a far more efficacious manner, and, of course, a true propitia- 
tory sacrifice. That Christ is truly present in the blessed eu- 
charist, I have proved by many arguments ; that a mystical 
immolation -of him takes place in the holy mass, by the separate 
consecration of the bread and of the wine, which strikingly re- 
presents the separation of his blood from his body, I have like- 
wise shown : finally, I have shown you that the officiating 
priest performs these mysteries by command of Christ, and in 
memory of what he did at the last supper, and what he endured 
on Mount Galvary : DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME. Noth- 
ing then is wanting in the holy mass, to constitute it the true 
and propitiatory sacrifice of the new law, a sacrifice which as 
much surpasses, in dignity and efficacy, the sacrifices of the 
old law, as the chief priest and victim of it, the incarnate Deity, 
surpasses, in these respects, the sons of Aaron, and the animals 
which they sacrificed. No wonder then, that, as the fathers of 
the church, from the earliest times, have borne testimony to the 
reality of this sacrifice,* so they should speak, in such lofty 
terms, of its awfulness and efficacy : no wonder that the church 
of God should retain and revere it as the most sacred, and the 

* St. Justin, who appears to have been, in his youth, contemporary with 
St. John the Evangelist, says, that" Christ instituted a sacrifice in bread 
and wine, which Christians offer up in every place," quoting Malachy i. 19. 
Dialog, cum Tryphon. St. Irenaeus, whose master, Polycarp, was a disci- 
ple of that. Evangelist, says, that " Christ, in consecrating bread and wine, 
has instituted the sacrifice of the New Law, which the church received 
from the apostles, according to the prophecy of Malachy." L- iv. 32. St. 
Cyprian calls the Etfcharist " A true and full sacrifice;" and says, that" as 
Melchisedcch offered bread and wine, so Christ offered the same, namely, 
his body and blood. " Epist 63. St. Chrysostom, St. Austin, St.- Ambrose, 
&c. are equally clear and expressive on this point. The last mentioned 
calls this sacrifice by the name of Missa or mass, so io St. Leo, St. Grego« 
ry, our Ven. Bede, &c. 



Letter XL. 



263 



very essential part of her sacred liturgy : and I will add, no 
wonder that Satan should have persuaded Martin Luther to at- 
tempt to abrogate this worship, as that which, most of all, is 
offensive to him.* 

The main arguments of the bishops of London and Lincoln, 
and of Dr. Hey, with other Protestant controvertists, against 
the sacrifice of the new law, are drawn from St. Paul's Epistle 
to the Hebrews, where, comparing the sacrifice of our Saviour 
with the sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, the apostle says, that 
Christ being come a high priest of the good things to come, by a 
greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, 
not of this creation : neither by the blood of goafs, or of calves, 
but by his own blood, entered once into the holies, having obtain- 
ed eternal redemption. Heb. ix. 11, 12. Nor yet that he should 
offer himself often, as the high priest entercth into the holies every 
year. Ver. 25. Again, St. Paul says, Every priest standeth in- 
deed daily ministering and often offering the same sacrifices, which 
can never take away sins : but this man offering one sacrifice for 
sins, sitteth at the right hand of God. Chap. x. 11, 12. 

Such are the texts, at full length, which modern Protestants 
urge so confidently against the sacrifice of the new law ; but in 
which neither the ancient fathers, nor any other description of 
Christians, but themselves, can see any argument against it. In 
fact, if these passages be read in their context, it will appear 
that the apostle is barely proving to the Hebrews (whose lofty 
ideas and strong tenaciousness of their ancient rites appear from 
different parts of the Acts of the Apostles) how infinitely supe- 
rior the sacrifice of Christ is, to those of the Mosaic Law ; par- 
ticularly from the circumstance, which he repeats, in different 
forms, namely, that there was a necessity of their sacrifices be- 
ing often repeated, which, after all, could not of themselves, and 
independently of the one they prefigured, take away sin; where- 
as the latter, namely, Christ's death on the cross, obliterated at 
once the sins of those who availed themselves of it. Such is 
the argument of St. Paul to the Jews, respecting their sacrifices, 
which in no sort militates against the sacrifice of the mass ; this 
being the same sacrifice with that of the cross, as to the victim 
that is offered, and as to the priest who offers it, differing in noth- 

* Luther, in his Book De Unct. et Miss. Priv. torn. vii. fol. 228, gives 
an account of the motive which induced him to suppress the sacrifice of 
the mass among his followers. He says that the Devil appeared to him at 
midnight, and in a long conference with him, the whole of which he re- 
lates, convinced him that the worship of the mass is idolatry. See Letters 
to a Prebendary. Let. v. 



«64 



Letter XL. 



ing but the manner of offering ;* in the one there being a real 

and in the other a mystical, effusion of the victim's blood. t S# 
far from invalidating the Catholic doctrine on this point, the apos- 
tle confirms it, in this very Epistle ; where quoting and repeat- 
ing the sublime Psalm of the roval prophet, concerning the Mes- 
siah ; Thou art a priest for ever XCCO RDING TO THE OR- 
DER OF MELCH1SEDECH, Ps. 109, alias 110, he enlarges 
on the dignity of this sacerdotal patriarch, to whom Aaron himself, 
the hioh priest of the old law, paid tribute, as to his superior, 
through his ancestor Abraham, Heb. v. vii. Now in what did 
this order of Melchisedech consist ? In what, I ask, did his sac- 
rifice differ from those which Abraham himself and the other 
patriarchs, as well as iVaron and his sons offered 1 Let us con- 
sult the sacred text, as to what it says concerning this royal 
priest, when he came to meet Abraham, on his return from vic- 
tory : Melchisedech, the king of Salem, bringing forth BREAD 
AND WINE, for he icas the priest of the most High God; bless- 
ed him. Gen. xiv. 18. It was then in offering up a sacrifice of 
bread and wine,\ instead of slaughtered animals, that Melchise- 
dech's sacrifice differed from the generality of those in the Old 
Law, and that he prefigured the sacrifice, which Christ was to 
institute in the New Law, from the same elements. No other 
sense but this can be elicited from the Scripture as to this mat- 
ter, and accordingly, the holy fathers unanimously adhere to this 
meaning. $ 

In finishing this letter, I cannot help, dear sir, making two or 
three short, but important observations. The first regards the 
deception practiced on the unlearned by the above-named 
bishops, Dr. Hey, and most other Protestant controvertists, in 
talking, on every occasion, of the Popish mass, and representing 
the tenets of the real presence, transubstantiation, and a subsist- 
ing true propitiatory sacrifice, as peculiar to Catholics ; whereas, 
if they are persons of any learning, they must know that these 
are and have always been held by all the Christians in the 
world, except the comparatively few who inhabit the northern 
parts of Europe. I speak of the Melchite or common Greeks 
of Turkey, the Armenians, the Muscovites, the Nestorians, the 
Eutychians or Jacobites, the Christians of St. Thomas in India, 

* Concil. Trid. Sess. xxii. cap. 2. t Cat. ad Paroc. P. ii. p. 81. 

t The sacrifice of Cain, Gen. iv. 3. and that ordered in Levit. ii. 1, of 
flour, oil, and incense, prove that inanimate things were sometimes of old 
offered in sacrifice. 

§ St. Cypr. Ep. 63. St. Aug. in Ps. xxxiii. St. Chrys. Horn 35. St. Jerom, 
Ep. 126. *&c. 



Letter XL, 



265 



the Cophts and Ethiopians in Africa ; all of whom maintain 
each of those articles, and almost every other on which Pro- 
testants differ from Catholics, with as much firmness as we our- 
selves do. Now as these sects have been totally separated from 
the Catholic church, some of them eight hundred and some four- 
teen hundred years, it is impossible they should have derived 
any recent doctrines or practices from her ; and, divided, as they 
ever have been among themselves, they cannot have combined 
to adopt them. On the other hand, since the rise of Protestant- 
ism, attempts have been repeatedly made to draw some or other 
of them to the novel creed ; but all in vain. Melancthon trans- 
lated the Ausburg Confession of Faith into Greek, and sent it to 
Joseph, patriarch of C. P., hoping he would adopt it ; whereas tho 
patriarch did not so much as acknowledge the receipt of the 
present.* Fourteen years later, Crusius, professor of Tubigen, 
made a similar attempt on Jeremy, the successor of Joseph, who 
wrote back, requesting him to write no more on the subject, at 
the same time making the most explicit declaration of his belief 
in the seven sacraments, the sacrifice of the mass, transubstan- 
tiation, &c.f In the middle of the seventeenth century, fresh 
overtures being made to the Greeks by the Calvinists of Holland, 
the most convincing evidence of the orthodox belief of all the 
above-mentioned communions, on the articles in question, were 
furnished by them, the originals of which were deposited in the 
French king's library at Paris.;}; I have to remark, in the second 
place, on the inconsistencies of the church of England, respect- 
ing this point ; she has priests,^ but, no sacrifice I She has 
ahars,\\ but, no victim ! She has an essential consecration of the 
sacramental elements,^" without any the least effect upon them ! 
Not to dive deeper into this chaos, I would gladly ask bishop 
Porteus, what hinders a deacon, or even a layman, from conse- 
crating the sacramental bread and wine as validly as a priest or 
a bishop can do, agreeably to his system of consecration ? 
There is evidently no obstacle at all, except such as the muta- 
ble law of the land interposes. In the last place, I think it 
right to quote some of the absurd and irreligious invectives of 

* Sheffmac. torn. ii. p. 7. t Ibid. t Perpetuitd de la Foi. 

§ See the Rubrics of the communion service. 
II See ditto in Sparrow's Collec. p. 20. 

IT " If the consecrated bread or wine be all spent, before all have com- 
municated, the priest is to consecrate more." Rubr. N. B- Bishop 
Warburton and bishop Cleaver earnestly contend that the Eucharist is a 
feast upon a sacrifice: but as, in their dread of Popery, they admit no 
change, nor even the reality of a victim, their feast is proved to be an 
imaginary banquet on an ideal viand. 



266 



Letter XL. 



he renowned Dr. Hey against the holy mass, because they 

show the extreme ignorance of our religion, which generally 
prevails among the most learned Protestants, who write against 
it. The doctor first describes the mass as " blasphemous, in 
dragging down Christ from heaven," according to his expression ; 
2dly, as "pernicious, in giving men an easy way." as he pre- 
tends, " of evading all their moral and religious duties ;" 3rdly, 
as "promoting infidelity:" in^conformity with which latter as- 
sertion, he maintains that " most Romanists of letters and sci- 
ence are infidels. He next proceeds seriously to advise Catho- 
lics to abandon this part of their sacred liturgy, namely, the 
adorable sacrifice of the New Law ; and he then concludes his 
theological farce with the following ridiculous threats against 
this sacrifice : " If the Romanists will not listen to our brotherly 
exhortations ; let them fear our threats. The rage of paying for 
masses will not last for ever : as men improve, (by the French 
Revolution,) it will continue to grow weaker : as philosophy 
[that of Atheism) rises, masses will sink in price and supersti- 
tion rjine away."* I wish I had an opportunity of telling the 
learned professor, that I should have expected, from the failure 
of patriarch Luther, counselled and assisted as he was by Satan 
himself, in his attempts to abolish the holy mass, he would have 
been more cautious in dealing prophetic threats against it! [In 
fact he has lived to see this divine worship publicly restored in 
every part of Christendom, where it was proscribed, when he 
vented his menaces : for as to the private celebration of mass t 
this was never intermitted, not even in the depth of the gloomi- 
est dungeons, and where no pay could be had by the -Catholic 
priesthood. What other religious worship, I ask, could have 
triumphed over such a persecution ! The same will be the case 
in the latter days ; when the man of sin shall have indignation 
against the convenant of the sanctuary, — and shall take away the 
continual sacrifice, Dan. xi. 30, 34 ; for even then, the mystical 
woman who is clothed with the sun, and has the moon under her 
feet, — shall fly into the wilderness, Rev. xii. 1, 6, and perform 
the divine mysteries of an incarnate Deity in caverns and cata- 
combs, as she did in early times, till that happy day, when her 
heavenly spouse, casting aside those sacramental veils, under 
which his love now shrouds him, shall shine forth in the glory of 
God the Father, the Judge of the living and the dead.] 

I am, &c. J. M. 

* Dr. Hey s Theol. Lectures, vol. iv. p. 385. The professor tells us in a 
note, that this lecture \vw delivered in the year 1792 ; the hey-day of that 
antichristian and antisocial philosophy, which attempted, through an oceaa 
»f, HqqcL ta subvert every altar and every throne. 



267 



LETTER XLI. 
To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
on absolution from sin. 

Dear Sir, 

I perceive that you chiefly follow B. Porteus, who mixes in 
the same chapter the heterogeneous subject of the mass and 
the forgiveness of sins, in the selection of your objections against 
the church, though you adopt some others from the Tracts of 
bishop Watson, and even from writers of such little repute as 
the Rev. C. De Coetlogon. This preacher, in venting the horrid 
calumnies, which a great proportion of other Protestant preach- 
ers and controvertists of different' sects, equally with himself, 
instil into the minds of their ignorant hearers and readers, ex- 
presses himself as follows : " In the church of Rome you may 
purchase not only pardons for sins already commuted, but for 
those that shall be committed ; so that any one may promise 
himself impunity, upon paying the rate that is set upon any sin 
he hath a mind to commit. And so truly is Popery the mother 
of abominations, that if any one hath wherewithal to pay, he 
may not only be indulged in his present transgressions, but may 
even be permitted to transgress in future."* And are these shame- 
less calumniators real Christians, who believe in a judgment to 
come ! And do they expect to make us Catholics renounce our 
religion, by representing it to us as the very reverse of what we 
know it to be ! It is true, bishop Porteus does not go the 

* Abominations of the church of Rome, p. 13. The preacher goes on to 
state the sums of money for which, he says, Catholics believe they may 
commit the most atrocious crimes; " For incest, &c. five sixpences; for 
debauching a virgin, six sixpences; for perjury, ditto; for him who kills 
his father, mother, &c. one crown and five groats!" This curious account 
is borrowed from the Taxa CanceUarioz Romance, a book which has been 
frequently published, though with great variations both as to the crimes and 
the price's, by the Protestants of Germany and France, and as frequently 
condemned by the See of Rome. Tt is proper that Mr. Clayton and his 
friends should know, that the Pope's Court of Chancery has no more to do, 
nor pretends to have any more to do, with the forgivenes of sins, than his Ma- 
jesty's court of chancery does In case there ever was the least real 
groundwork of this vile book, which I cannot find there was, the money 
paid into the papal chancery could be nothing else but the fees of office, on 
restoring certain culprits to the civil privileges which they had forfeited by 
their crimes. When the proceedings in doctors commons, in case of incest, 
are suspended (as I have known them suspended during the whole life of 
one of the accused parties') fees of office are always required: but would it 
not be a vile calumny to say, that leave to c:mmit incest may be purchased 
in England for certain sums of mon?y 1 



268 



Letter XLI 



lengths of the pulpit-declaimer above quoted, and of the other 

controvertists alluded to, in his attack upon the Catholic doctrine 
of absolution and justification : still he is guilty of much gross 
misrepresentation of it. As his language is confused, if not 
contradictory on the subject, I will briefly state what the Catholic 
church has ever believed, and has solemnly defined in her last 
general council concerning it. 

The council of Trent, then, teaches, that " All men lost their 
innocence and become defiled and children of wrath, in the pre- 
varication of Adam ; that, not only the Gentiles were unable, by 
the force of nature, but that even the Jews were unable, by the 
Law of Moses, to rise, notwithstanding free-will was not extinct 
in them, however weakened and depraved :"* that " The hea- 
venly Father of mercy and God of all consolation sent his Son, 
Jesus Christ, to men, in order to redeem both Jews and Gen- 
tiles ;"f that "Though he died for all, yet all do not receive 
the benefit of his death ; but only those to whom the merit of 
his passion is communicated ;"J that, for this purpose, " Since 
the preaching of the Gospel, baptism, or the desire of it, is ne- 
cessary that " The beginning of justification, in adult per- 
sons (those who are come to the use of reason) is to be derived 
from God's preventing grace, through Jesus Christ, by which, 
without any merits of their own, they are called ; so that they 
who, by their sins, were averse from God, by his exciting and 
assisting grace, are prepared to convert themselves to their 
justification, by freely consenting to and co-operating with his 
grace that, " Being excited and assisted by divine grace, and 
receiving faith from hearing, they are freely moved towards 
God, believing the things which have been divinely revealed 
and promised — they are excited to hope that God will be merci- 
ful to them for Christ's sake, and they begin to love him, as the 
fountain of all justice ; and therefore are moved to a certain ha- 
tred and detestation of sins." Lastly, " They resolve on receiv- 
ing baptism, to begin a new life and keep God's command- 
ments."^ Such is the doctrine of the church concerning the 
jastification of the adult in baptism ; with respect to the pardon 
of sins committted after baptism, the church teaches, that " The 
penance of a Christian, after his fall, is very different from that 
of baptism, and that it consists, not only in refraining from sins 
and a detestation of them, namely, a contrite and humble heart, 
but also in a sacramental confession of them, at least in desire, 
aiul, at a proper time, and the priestly absolution ; and likewise 



• Ses9. vi. cap. i. 
I Cap. ir. 



+ Cap. ii. 
II Cap. v. 



t Cap. iii. 
* Cap. vl 



Letter XLI. 



269 



in satisfaction, by fasting, alms, prayers, and other pious exer- 
cises of a spiritual life ; not indeed for the eternal punishment, 
which, together with the crime, is remitted in the sacrament, or 
the desire of the sacrament, but for the temporal punishment, 
which the. Scripture teaches is not always and wholly remitted, 
as in baptism."* Such is and always was the doctrine of the 
Catholic church, which thus ascribes the whole glory of man's 
justification, both in its beginning and its progress, to God, 
through Jesus Christ ; in opposition to Pelagians and modern 
Lutherans, who attribute the beginning of conversion to the hu- 
man creature. On the other hand, this doctrine leaves man in 
possession of his free will, for co-operating in this great work ; 
and thereby rejects the pernicious tenet of the Calvinists, who 
deny free will, and ascribe even our sins to God. In short, the 
Catholic church equally condemns the enthusiasm of the Metho- 
dist, who fancies himself justified, in some unexpected instant, 
without faith, hope, charity, or contrition ; and the presumption 
of the unconverted sinner, w\io supposes that exterior good 
works and the reception of the sacrament will avail him, without 
any degree of the above-mentioned divine virtues. Such, I say, 
is the Catholic doctrine, in spite of De Coetlogon and bishop 
Porteus's calumnies. This prelate is chiefly bent on disproving 
the necessity of sacramental confession, and on depriving the 
sacerdotal absolution of all efficacy whatsoever. Accordingly, 
he maintains that when Christ breathed upon his apostles and 
said to them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost: WHOSE SINS YOU 
SHALL FORGIVE, THEY ARE FORGIVEN TO THEM; 
AND WHOSE SINS YOU SHALL RETAIN, THEY ARE 
RETAINED, John xx. 22, 23, he did not give them any real 
power to remit sins, but only " a power of declaring who were 
truly penitent, and of inflicting miraculous punishments on sin- 
ners ; as likewise of preaching of the word of God," &c.t 
And is this, I appeal to you, Rev. Sir, following the plain and 
natural sense of the written word ? But, instead of arguing the 
case myself, I will produce an authority against the bishop's 
vague and arbitrary gloss on this decisive passage, which I think 
he cannot object to or withstand ; it is no other than that of the 
renowned Protestant champion, Chillingworth. Treating of this 
text he says, " Can any man be so unreasonable as to imagine, 
that, when our Saviour, in so solemn a manner, having first 
breathed upon his disciples, thereby conveying and insinuating 
the Holy Ghost into their hearts, renewed unto them, or rather 
confirmed that glorious commission, &c. whereby he delegated 



• John. xx. 22, 23. 



1 P. 45. 



270 



Letter XLI. 



to them an authority of binding and loosing sins upon earth, &c; 

can any one think, I say, so unworthily of our Saviour as to es- 
teem these words of his for no better than compliment ? There- 
fore, in obedience to his gracious will, and as I am warranted 
and enjoined by my holy mother, the church of England, I be- 
seech you, that, by your practice and use, you will not suffer 
that commission, which Christ hath given to his ministers, to be 
a vain form of words, without any sense under them. When 
you find yourselves charged and oppressed, &c, have recourse 
to your spiritual physician, and freely disclose the nature and 
malignancy of your disease, &c. And come not to him, only 
with such a mind as you would go to a learned man, as one that 
can speak comfortable things to you ; but as to one that hath au- 
thority, delegated to him from God himself, to absolve and acquit 
you of your sins,''* 

Having quoted this great Protestant authority against the pre- 
late's cavils concerning sacerdotal absolution, I shall produce one 
or two more of the same sort, and then return to the more di- 
rect proofs of the doctrine under consideration. The Luther- 
ans, then, who are the elder branch of the Reformation, in their 
Confession of Faith and apology for that Confession, expressly 
teach that absolution is no less a sacrament than baptism 
and .the Lord's Supper, that particular absolution is to be re- 
tained in confession, that to reject it is the error of the Nova- 
tian heretics ; and that, by the power of the keys, Mat. xvi 19, 
sins are remitted, not only in the sight, of the church, but also in 
the sight of God A Luther himself, in his Catechism, required 
that the penitent, in confession, should expressly declare that he 
believes " the forgiveness of the priest to be the forgiveness of 
@o4t"$ What can bishop Porteus and other modern Protest- 
ants say to all this, except that Luther and his disciples were 
infected with Popery ? Let us then proceed to inquire into the 
doctrine of the church itself, of which he is one of the most dis- 
tinguished heads. In The Order of the Communion, composed 
by Cranmer, and published by Edward VI, the parson, vicar or 
curate, is to proclaim this among other things : "If there be 
any of you whose conscience is troubled and grieved at any 
thing, lacking comfort or counsel, let him come to me, or to 
some other discreet and learned priest, and confess and open his 
sin and grief secretly, &c. and that of us, as a minister of God 
and of the church, he may receive comfort and absolution.^ 

* Serm. vii. Relig. pp. 408, 409. 

t Confess. August. Art. xi. xii. xiii. Apol. 

X la Catech. Parv. See also Luther's Table Talk, c. xviii. on Auricu* 
lar Confessloa. § Bishop Sparrow's Collect, p. 20. 



Letter XLI. 



271 



Conformably with this admonition, it is ordained in the Com- 
mon Prayer Book that when the minister visits any sick person, 
the latter " should be moved to make a special confession of his 
sins, if he feels his conscience troubled with any weighty matter ; 
after which confession, the priest shall absolve him, if he humbly 
and heartily desire it, after this sort : Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who hath left power to his church to absolve all sinners, who tru' 
ly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy, forgive thee thine 
offences: and, by his authority committed to me, I ABSOLVE 
THEE FROM ALL THY SINS, in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen"* I may add, 
that, soon after James'I, became, at the same time, the member 
and the head of the English church, he desired his prelates to 
inform him^in the conference at. Hampton Court, what authori- 
ty this church claimed in the article of absolution from sin, 
when archbishop Whitgift began to entertain him with an ac- 
count of the general confession and absolution, in the commu- 
nion service ; with which the king not being satisfied, Bancroft, 
at that time bishop of London, fell on his knees, and said, " It 
becomes us to deal plainly with your majesty : there is also in 
the book a more particular and personal absolution in the visi- 
tation of the sick. Not only the confession of Augusta, (Ausburg) 
Bohemia and Saxony, retain and allow it, but also Mr. Calvin 
doth approve both such a general and such a private confession 
and absolution" To this the king answered, 1 exceedingly 
well approve it, being an apostolical and Godly ordinance, given 
in the name of Christ to one that desireth it upon the clearing of 
his conscience."! 

1 have signified that there are other passages of Scripture, 
besides that quoted above from John xx. in proof of the author- 
ity exercised' by the Catholic church in the forgiveness of sin ; 
such as St. Mat. xvi. 19, where Christ gives the keys of the 
kingdom of heaven to Peter ; and chap, xviii. 18, where he de- 
clares to all his apostles ; Verily I say unto you ; whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye 
shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. But here also Bp. 

* Order for the Visitation of the Sick. N. B. To encourage the secret 
confession of sins the church of England has made a Canon, requiring her 
ministers not to reveal the same. See Canones Eccles. A. D. 1WJ2, n. 113. 

t Fuller's Ch. Hist. B. x. p. 9. See the Defence of Bancroft's Succes- 
sor in the See of Canterbury, Dr. Laud, who endeavoured to enforce auri- 
cular Confession, in Heylin's life of Laud, P. ii. p. 41E. It appears from 
this writer, that Laud was Confessor to the duke of Buckingham, and from 
Burnet, that bishop Morley was Confessor to the Dutchess of York when % 
Protestant. Hist, of his own Times. 



273 



Letter XLI. 



Porteus and modern Protestants distort the plain meaning of 
Scripture, and say, that no other power is expressed by these 
words, than those of inflicting miraculous punishments, and of 
preaching the word of God ! Admitting, however, it were pos- 
sible to affix so foreign a meaning to these texts, I would gladly 
ask the bishop, why, after ordaining the priests of his church 
by this very form of words, he afterwards, by a separate form, 
commissions them to preach the word, and to minister ?* " No 
one," exclaims the bishop, " but God, can forgive sins." True ; 
but as he has annexed the forgiveness of sins committed before 
baptism, to the reception of this sacrament with the requisite 
dispositions : Do penance, said St. Peter to the Jews, and be 
baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
remission of your sins, Acts ii. 38 ; so he is pleased to forgive 
sins committed after baptism, by means of contrition, confession, 
satisfaction, and the priest's absolution. 

Against the obligation of confessing sins, which is so evident- 
ly sanctioned in Scripture : Many that believed, came and con- 
fessed, and declared their deeds, Acts xix. 18 ; and so expressly 
commanded therein, confess your sins one to anvther, James v. 
16, the bishop contends that " It is not knowing a person's sins 
that can qualify the priest to give him absolution, but knowing 
he hath repented of them."f In refutation of this objection, I 
do not ask, why, then, does the English church move the dyin^ 
man to confess his sins ? but I say, that the priest, being vested 
by Christ with a judicial power to bind or to loose, to forgive or 
to retain sins, cannot exercise that power, without taking cogni 
zance of the cause on which he is to pronounce, and without 
judging in particular of the dispositions of the sinner, especially 
as to his sorrow for his sins, and resolution to refrain from them 
in future : now this knowledge can only be gained from the 
penitent's own confession. From this may be gathered, whether 
his offences are those of frailty or of malice, whether they are 
accidental or habitual ; in which latter case they are ordinarily 
to be retained, till his amendment gives proof of his real repen- 
tance. Confession is also necessary, to enable the minister of 
the sacrament to decide whether a public reparation for the 
crimes committed be or be not requisite ; and whether there is 
or is not restitution to be made to the neighbour who has been 
injured in person, property, or reputation. Accordingly, it is 
well known that such restitutions are frequently made by those 
who make use of sacramental confession, and very seldom by 
those who do not use it. I say nothing of the incalculable ad« 



4 See the Form of Ordering Priests. 



t P. 46. 



Letter XLI. 



273 



vantage it is to the sin, in the business of his conversion, to 
nave a confidential and experienced pastor, to withdraw the veils 
behind which self-love is apt to conceal his favourite passions 
and worst crimes, and to expose to him the enormity of his guilt, 
of which before he had perhaps but an imperfect notion ; and to 
prescribe to him the proper remedies for his entire spiritual cure. 
After all, it is for the holy Catholic church, with whom the 
Word of God and the sacraments were deposited by her divine 
spouse. Jesus Christ, to explain the sense of the former, and the 
constituents of the latter. In short, this church has uniformly 
taught, that confession and the priest's absolution, where the} 
can be had, are required of the penitent sinner, as well as con- 
trition and a firm purpose of amendment. But, to believe the 
bishop, our church does not require contrition at all, though she* 
has declared it to be one of the necessary parts of sacramental 
penance, nor " any dislike to sin or love to God,"* for the justifi- 
cation of the sinner. I will make no farther answer to this 
shamefM calumny, than by referring you and your friends to 
my above citations from the council of Trent. In these, you 
have seen that she requires " a hatred and detestation of .sin 
in short, " a contrite and humble heart, which God never despises :" 
and moreover, " an incipient love of God, as the fountain of all 
justice." 

Finally, his lordship has the confidence to maintain, that 
" The primitive church did not hold confession and absolution 
of this kind to be necessary," and that " Private confession was 
never thought of as a* command of God, for nine hundred years 
after Christ, nor determined to be such till after 1200. "f The 
few following quotations from ancient fathers and councils, will 
convince our Salopian friends what sort of trust they are to place 
in this prelate's assertions on theological subjects. Tertullian, 
who lived in the age nex to that of the apostles, and is the ear- 
liest Latin writer, whose works we possess, writes thus : " If 
you withdraw from confession, think of hell-fire, which confession 
extinguishes."^ Origen, who wrote soon after him, inculcates 
the necessity of confessing our most private sins, even those of 
thought,^ and advises the sinner " to look carefully about him in 
choosing the person to whom he is to confess his sins."|| St, 
Basil, in the fourth century, wrote thus : " It is necessary to 
disclose our sins to those to whom the dispensation of the divine 
mysteries is committed."^" St Paulinus, the disciple of St. 
Ambrose, relates, that this holy doctor used to " weep over the 



* P. 47 t Ibid. t Lib. de Poenit 

£ Horn. 3 in Levit. II Horn. 2 in Ps. xxxvii. IT Rule 229. 



274 



Letter XLL 



penitents whose confessions he heard, but never disclosed theft 
sins to any but to God alone."'* The great St. Austin writes, 
" Our merciful God wills us to confess in this world, that we 
may not be confounded in the other ;f and elsewhere he says, 
" Let no one say to himself, I do penance to God in private. Is 
it then in vain that Christ has said, Whatsoever you loose on 
earth, shall be loosed in heaven ? Is it in vain that the keys have 
been given to the church ? ? 't I could produce a long list of 
other passages to the same effect, from fathers and doctors, and 
also from councils of the church, anterior to the periods he has 
assigned to the commencement and confirmation of the doctrine 
in question ; but I will have recourse to a shorter, and perhaps 
more convincing proof, that this doctrine could not have been 
introduced into the church at any period whatsoever subsequent to 
that of Christ and his apostles. My argument is this : it is im- 
possible it should have been at any time introduced, if it was not 
from the first necessary. The pride of the human heart would 
at all times have revolted at the imposition of such a humiliation, 
as that of confessing all its most secret sins, if Christians had 
not previously believed that this rite is of divine institution, and 
even necessary for the pardon of them. Supposing, however, 
that the clergy, at some -period, had fascinated the laity, kings 
and emperors, as well as peasants, to submit to this yoke ; it 
will still remain to be accounted for, how they took it up them- 
selves ; for monks, priests and bishops, and the Pope himself, 
must equally confess their sins with the meanest of the people. 
And if even this could be explained, it would still be necessary 
to show how the numerous organized churches of the Nestorians 
and Eutychians, spread over Asia and Africa, from Bagdad to 
Axum, all of whom broke from the communion of the Catholic 
church in the fifth century, took up the notion of penance being 
a sacrament, and that confession and absolution are essential 
parts of it, as they all believe at the present day. With respect 
to the main body of the Greek Christians, they separated from 
the Latins much about the period which our prelate has set 
down for the rise of this doctrine ; but though they reproached 
the Latin Christians with shaving their beards, singing Alle- 
lujah at wrong seasons, and other such like minutiae, they never 
accused thein of any error respecting private confession or sacer- 
dotal absolution. To support the bishop's assertions on this and 
many other points, it would be necessary to suppose, as I have 
said before, that a hundred millions of Greek and Latin Chris- 
tians lost their senses on some one and the same day or night ' 



In Vit. Ambros. 



t Horn. 20. 



t Horn 49. 



Letter XLIL 



275 



In finishing this letter, I take leave, Rev. sir, to advert to the 
case of some of your respectable society, who, to my know- 
ledge, are convinced of the truth of the Catholic religion, but 
are deterred from embracing it, by the dread of that sacrament 
of which I have been treating. Their pitiable case is by no 
means singular : who continually find persons who are not only 
desirous of reconciling themselves to their true mother, the Ca- 
tholic church, but also of laying the sins of their youth and their 
ignorances, Ps. xxiv. alias xxv. 7, at the feet of some one or 
other of her faithful ministers, convinced that thereby they 
would procure ease to their afflicted souls, yet have not the 
courage to do this. Let the persons alluded to humbly and 
fervently pray to the Giver of all good gifts for his strengthen- 
ing grace, and let them be persuaded of the truth of what an 
unexceptionable witness says, who had experienced, while he 
was a Catholic, the interior joy he describes, where, persuading 
the penitent to go to his confessor " not as to one that can speak 
' comfortable and quieting words to him, but as to one that hath 
authority delegated to him from God himself, to absolve and acquit 
him of his sins," he goes on, " If you shall do this, assure your 
souls, that the understanding of man is not able to conceive that 
transport, and excess of joy and comfort, which shall accrue ,to 
that man's heart, who is persuaded he hath been made partaker 
of this blessing."* On the other hand, if such persons are con- 
vinced, as I am satisfied they are, that Christ's words to his 
apostles, Receive the Holy Ghost : whose sins you shall remit, 
they arc remitted, mean what they express, they must know, 
that confession is necessary to buy off overwhelming confusion, 
as the fathers I have quoted signify, at the great day of manifes- 
tation, and with this never-ending punishment. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XLH. 

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
on indulgences. 

Rev. Sir, 

I trust you will pardon me, if I do not send a special an- 
swer to the objections you have stated against my last letter to 
you, because you will find the substance of them answered in 
this and my next letter concerning indulgences and purgatory. 
Bishop Porteus reverses the proper order of these subjects, by 

* Chilli ngworth Sermon vh\ p. 409. 



276 



Letter XL1L 



treating first of the latter: indeed his ideas are much confused, 

and his knowledge very imperfect concerning them both. This 
prelate describes an indulgence to be, in the belief of Catholics, 
(without, however, giving any authority whatever for his de- 
scription) " a transfer of the overplus of the saints' goodness, 
joined with the merits of Christ, &c. by the Pope, as head o f 
the church, towards the remission of their sins, who fulfil, in 
their lifetime, certain conditions appointed by him, or whose 
friends will fulfil them, after their death."* He speaks of it as 
" a method of making poor wretches believe that wickedness 
here may become consistent with happiness hereafter — that re- 
pentance is explained away or overlooked among other things 
joined with it, as saying so many prayers and paying so much 
money."f Some of the bishop's friends have published much 
the same description of indulgences, but in more perspicuous 
language. One of them, in his attempt to show that each Pope, 
in succession, has been the man of sin, or Antichrist, says 
" Besides their own personal vices, by their indulgences, par- * 
dons, and dispensations, which they claim a power from Christ 
of granting, and which they have sold in so infamous a manner, 
they have encouraged all manner of vile and wicked practices. 
They have contrived numberless methods of making a holy life 
useless, and to assure the most abandoned of salvation, provided 
they will sufficiently pay the priests for absolution."! With the 
same disregard of charity and truth, another eminent divine 
speaks of the matter thus, " the Papists have taken a notable 
course to secure men from the fear of hell, that of penances and 
indulgences. To those, who will pay the price, absolutions are 
to be had for the most abominable and not to be named villanies 
and license also for not a few wickednesses."^ In treating of a 
subject, the most intricate of itself among the common topics of 
controversy, and which has been so much confused and perplex- 
ed by the misrepresentations of our opponents, it will be neces- 
sary, for giving you, Rev. sir, and my other Salopian friends, a 
clear and just idea of the matter, that I should advance, step by 
step, in my explanation of it. In this manner I propose showing 
you, first, what an indulgence is not, and, next, what it really is. 

I. An indulgence, then, never was conceived by any Catholic 
to be a leave to commit a sin of any kind, as De Coetlogon, 

* P. 53. 

+ P. 54. Benson on the Man of Sin, republished by bishop Watscn s 
Tracts, vol. v. p. 273. 

t Bishop Fowler's Design of Christianity, Tracts, vol. vi. p. 382. 
§ Benson on the Man of Sin, Collect. 



Letter XL1I. 



27* 



bishop Fowler, and others charge them with believing. The 
first principles of natural religion must, convince every rational 
being that God himself cannot give leave to commit sin. The 
idea of such a license takes away that of his sanctity, and, of 
course, that of his very being. II. No Catholic ever believed 
it to be a pardon for future sins, as Mrs. Hannah More, and a 
great part of other Protestant writers represent the matter. 
This lady describes the Catholics as " procuring indemnity for 
future g rat iti cations by temporary abstractions and indulgences, 
purchased at the court of Rome."* Some of her fraternity, 
indeed, have blasphemously written, " Believers ought not to 
mourn for sin, because it was pardoned before it was commit- 
ted ;"t but every Catholic knows that Christ himself could not 
pardon sin before it was committed, because this would imply 
that he forgave the sinner without repentance. III. An indul- 
gence, according to the doctrine of the Catholic church, is not, 
and does not include the pardon of any sin at all, little or great, 
past, present, or to come, or the eternal punishment due to it, aa 
all Protestants suppose. Hence, if the pardon of sin is men- 
tioned in any indulgence, this means nothing more than the re- 
mission of the temporary punishments annexed to such sin. 
IV. We do not believe an indulgence to imply any exemption 
from repentance, as B. Porteus slanders us ; for this is always 
enjoined or implied in the grant of it, and is indispensably ne- 
cessary for the effect of every grace \\ nor from the works of 
penance, or other good works ; because our church teaches that 
the life of a Christian ought to be a perpetual penance, § and 
that to enter into life, we must keep God's commandments ,|| and 
must abound in every good toork'"^ Whether an obligation of 
all this" can be reconciled with the articles of being " justified 
by faith only,"** and that " works done before grace partake 
of the nature of sin, ''ft I do not here inquire. V. It is incon- 
sistent with our doctrine of inherent justification, to believe, 

* Strictures on Female Education, vol. ii. p. 239. 

t Eaton's Honeycomb of Salvation. See also Sir Richard Hill's Letters; 
t Concil. Trid. Sess. vi. c 4, c. 13, &c. 

§ Sess. xiv. De Extr. Unc. II Sess. vi. can. 19. 

IT Ibid, cap 16. — N. B. There are eight Indulgences granted to Catholics 
at the chief festivals, &c. in every year; the conditions of which are, con- 
fession with sincere repentance, the H. Communion, alms to the poor, 
(without distinction of their religion) prayers for the church and strayed 
souls, the peace of Christendom, and the blessing of God m this natif n; 
finally, a disposition to hear the wi/rd of God, and to assist file sick. Sea 
Laity's Directory, Keating and Brown. 

** Art. XI. of 39 Art. tt Art. XIII. 

tt Trid. Sess. vi. can. xi. 

34 



278 



Letter XLIl. 



as the same prelate charges us, that the effect of an indulgence 

is to transfer " the overplus of the goodness," or justification oi 
the saints, by the ministry of the Pope, to us Catholics on earth. 
Such an absurdity may be more easily reconciled with the sys- 
tem of Luther and other P-otestants concerning imputed justifi- 
cation ; which, being like a " clean, neat cloak, thrown over a 
filthy leper,"* may be conceived transferable from one person 
to another. ' Lastly, whereas the council of Trent calls indul- 
gences heavenly treasures,} we hold that it would be a sacrile- 
gious crime in any person whomsoever to be concerned in buy- 
ing or selling them. I am far, however, Rev. sir, from denying 
that indulgences have ever been soldf — alas ! what is so sacred 
that the avarice of men has not put up to sale ! Christ himself 
was sold, and that by an apostle, for thirty pieces of silver. 1 
do not retort upon you the advertisement 1 frequently see in the 
newspapers about buying and selling benefices, with the cure of 
souls annexed to them, in your church ; but this I contend for, 
that the Catholic church, so far from sanctioning this detestable 
simony, has used her utmost pains, particularly in the geneial 
councils of Lateran, Lyons, Vienne, and Trent, to prevent it. 

To explain, now, in a clear and regular manner, what an in- 
dulgence is ; I suppose, first, that no one will deny that a sove- 
reign prince, in showing mercy to a capital convict, may either 
grant him' a remission of all punishment, or may leave him sub- 
ject to some lighter punishment : of course he will allow that 
the Almighty may act in either of these ways with respect to 
sinners. II. I equally suppose that no person, who is versed in 
the Bible, will deny that many instances occur there of God's 
remitting the essential guilt of sin and the eternal punishment 
due to it, and yet leaving a temporary punishment to be endured 
by the penitent sinner. Thus, for example, the sentence of 
spiritual death and everlasting torments was remitted to our first 
father, upon his repentance, but not that of corporal death. 
Thus, also when God reversed his severe sentence against, the 
idolatrous Israelites, he added, Nevertheless, in the day when I 
visit, I will visit their sin vpon them. Exod. xxxii. 34. Thus, 
again, when the inspired Nathan said to the model of penitents, 
David, The Lord hath put away thy sin, he added, nevertheless 
the child that is born unto thee shall die. 2 Kings, alias Sam. xii. 

* Becanus de Justifs. t Sess. xxi. c. 9- 

t The bishop tells us that he is in possession of an indulgence, lately 
granted at Rome, for a small sum of money; but he does not say who 
granted it. In like manner he may buy forged Bank notes and counterfeit 
coin in London very cheap, if he pleases. 



Letter XLII. 



279 



14. Finally, when David's heart smote him, after he had num* 
bered the people, the Lord, in pardoning him, offered him by his 
prophet, Gad, the choice of three temporal punishments, war, 
famine, and pestilence. Ibid. xxiv. HI. The Catholic church 
teaches that the same is still the common course of God's mercy 
and wisdom, in the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism ; 
since she has formally condemned the proposition, that " every 
penitent sinner, who, after the grace of Justification, obtains the 
remission of his guilt and eternal punishment, obtains also the 
remission of all temporal punishment."* The essential guilt 
and eternal punishment of sin, she declares, can only be expia- 
ted by the precious merits of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ ; but 
a certain temporal punishment God reserves for the penitent 
himself to endure, " Jest the easiness of his pardon should make 
him careless about falling back into sin."f Hence satisfaction 
for this temporal punishment has been instituted by Christ as a 
part of the sacrament of penance ; and hence " a Christian life," 
as the council has said above, " ou^ht to be a penitential life." 
This council at the same time, declares, that this very satisfac- 
tion for temporal punishment is only efficacious through Jesus 
Christ^ Nevertheless, as the promise of Christ to the apostles, 
and St. Peter in particular, and to their successors, is unlimited : 
WHATSOE\ ER you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also 
in heavtn, Mat. xviii. IS — xvi.19; hence the church believes 
and teaches that her jurisdiction extends to this very satisfaction, 
so as to be able to remit it wholly or partially, in certain circum- 
stances, by what is called an INDULGENCE. § St. Paul ex- 
ercised this power in behalf of the incestuous Corinthian, at his 
conversion and the prayers of the faithful. 2 Cor. ii. 10 ; and 
the church has claimed and exercised the same power ever since 
the time of the apostles down to the present. || V. Still this 
power, like that of absolution, is not arbitrary ; there must be a 
just cause for the exercise of it, namely, the greater good of the 
penitent, or of the faithful, or of Christendom in general ; and 
there must be a certain proportion between the punishment re- 
mitted and the good work performed. ^[ Hence no one can ever 
be sure that he has gained the entire benefit of an indulgence, 
though he has performed all the conditions appointed for this 
end :** and hence, of course, the pastors of the church will have 

* Cone. Trid. Sess. vi. can. 30. 

t Sess. vi. cap. 7, cap. 1-4. Sess. xiv. cap. 8. 

t Sess. xiv. 8. 

§ Trid. Sess. xxv. De Indulg. 

D Tertul. in Lib. ad Martyr, c. i. St. Cypr 1. 3. Epist. Concil. i. Nic 
Ancyr. &c. IT Beilarm. Lib. i. De Indulg. c. 12. ** Ibid. 



280 



Letter XLIL 



to answer for it, if they take upon themselves to grant indulgen- 
ces for unworthy or insufficient purposes. Vi. Lastly, it is the 
received doctrine of the church that an indulgence, when truly 
gained, is not barely a relaxation of the canonical penance en- 
joined by the church, but also an actual remisson by God of the 
whole or part of the temporal punishment due to it in his sight. 
The contrary opinion, though held by some theologians, has been 
condemned by Leo X,* and Pius VI :f and indeed, without the 
effect here mentioned, indulgences would not be heavenly trea- 
sures, and the use of them would not be beneficial, but rather 
pernicious to Christians, contrary to two declarations of the last 
general council, as*Bellarmin well argues.| 

The above explanation of an indulgence, conformably to the 
doctrine of Theologians, the decrees of Popes, and the defini- 
tions of Councils, ought to silence the objections and suppress 
the sarcasms of Protestants on this head : but if it be not suffi- 
cient for such purposes, I would gladly argue a few points with 
them concerning their own indulgences. Methinks, Rev. sir, I 
see you start at the mention of this, and hear you ask, what Pro- 
testants hold the doctrine of indulgences ? — I answer you ; all 
the leading sects of them, with which I am acquainted. To be- 
gin with the church of England : one of the first articles 1 meet 
w'vh in its canons, regards indulgences and the use that is to be 
made of the money paid for them."§ In the synod of 1640, a 
canon was made which authorized the employment of commu- 
tation-money, namely, of such sums as were paid for indulgen- 
ces from ecclesiastical penances, not only in charitable, but also 
in public uses. || At this period the established clergy were de- 

* Art. 19- inter Art. Damn. Lutheri. 

t Const. Auclor. Fid. t L. i. c. 7, prop. 4. 

§ " Ne quae fiat posthac solemnis penitentise commutatio nisi rationibus, 
gravioribus que de causis, &c. Deinde quod mulcta ilia pecuniaria vel in 
relevam pauperum, vel in alios pios usus erogetur." Articuli pro Clero, 
A. D. 1584, Sparrow, p. 194. The next article is, " De moderandis qui- 
busdam indulgentiis pro celebratione matrimonii," &c. p. 1<>5. 4'hese in- 
dulgences were renewed, under the same titles, in the Synod held in 
London in 1597. Sparrow, pp. 248. 252. 

II " That no Chancellor, Commissary or Official, shall have power to 
commute any penance, in whole or in part; but either, together with the 
bishop, &c that he shall give a full and just account of such commutations, 
to the bishop, who shall see that all such moneys shall be disposed of for 
charitable and public uses, according to law — saving always to ecclesiasti- 
cal officers their due and accustomable fees." Canon 14 s Sparrow, p. 3G8— 
In the remonstrance of grievances presented by a committee of the Irish 
parliament to Charles 7, one of them was, that " Several bishops received 
great sums of money for commutation of penance (that is for indulgences) 
which they converted to their own use." Commons J mm. quoted by 
Curry, Vol. i. p. 169. 



Letter XLIl 



281 



oting all the money they could any way procure to the war 
which Charles I. was preparing in defence of the church and 
state against the Presbyterians of Scotland and England : so 
that, in fact, the money then raised by indulgences was employ- 
ed in a real crusade. It has been before stated that the second 
offspring of Protestantism, the Anabaptists, claimed an indul- 
gence from God hinself, in quality of his chosen ones, to despoil 
the impious., namely, all the rest of mankind, of their property : 
while the genuine Calvinists. of all times, have ever maintained 
that Christ has set them free from the observance of every law 
of God as well as of man. Agreeably to this tenet, sir Richard 
Hill says, " It is a most pernicious error of the schoolmen to 
distinguish sins according to the fact, and not according to the 
person."* With respect to patriarch Luther, it is notorious 
that he was in the habit of granting indulgences, of various 
kinds, to himself and his disciples. Thus, for example, he dis- 
pensed with himself and Catharine Boren from their vows of a 
religious life, and particularly that of celibacy : and even preach- 
ed up adultery in his public sermons. f In like manner he pub- 
lished Bulls, authorizing the robbery of bishops and bishoprics, 
and the murder of Popes and cardinals. But the most celebrated 
of his indulgences is that which, in conjunction with Bucer and 
Melancthon, he granted to Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, in con- 
sideration of the latter's protection of Protestantism, for so it is 
stated, to marry a second wife, his former being living. J But 
if any credit is due to this same Bucer, who, for his learning, 
was invited by Cranmer and the duke of Somerset into England, 
and made the divinity professor of Cambridge, the whole busi- 
ness of the pretended Reformation was an indulgence of liber- 
tinism. His words are these : " The greater part of the people 
seem only to have embraced the Gospel, in order to shake off 
the yoke of discipline and the obligation of fasting, penance 
&c. which lay upon them in Popery, and to live at their plea- 
sure, enjoying their lusts and lawless appetites, without controul. 
Hence they lent a willing ear to the doctrine that we are saved 
by faith alone, and not by good works, having no relish for them."§ 

I am, &c. J. M. 

* Fletcher's Checks, vol. iii. 

t " Si nolit Domina, veniat ancilla, &c." Serm. De Matrim. t. v. 

t This infamous indulgence, with the deeds belonging to it, was pub- 
lished from the original by permission of a descendant of the Landgrave^ 
and republished by Bossuet. Variat. book vi 

§ Bucer, De Regn. Chris i. i. c. 4. 



24' 



283 



LETTER XLIII. 

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 

on pi rgatory and prayers for the dead. 
Rev. Sir, 

In the natural order of our controversies, this is the proper 
place to treat of purgatory and prayers for the dead. On this 
subject, bishop Porteus begins with saying, " There is no Scrip- 
ture proof of the existence of purgatory : heaven and hell we 
read of perpetually in the Bible ; but purgatory we never meet 
with : though surely, if there be such a place, Christ and his 
apostles would not have concealed it from us."* I might expose 
the inconclusiveness of this argument by the following parallel 
one ; the Scripture nowhere commands us to keep the frst day of 
the week holy : we perpetually read of sanctifying the Sabbath, or 
Saturday; but never meet with the Sunday, as a day of obli- 
gation ; though, if there be such an obligation, Christ and his 
apostles would not have concealed it from us ! I might like- 
wise answer, with the bishop of Lincoln, that the inspired Epis- 
tles (and I may add the Gospels also) " are not to be considered 
as regular treatises upon the Christian religion "! But I meet 
the objection in front, by saying, first, that the apostles did teach 
their converts the doctrine of purgatory, among their other doc- 
trines, as St. Chrysostom testifies, and the traditon of the church 
proves : secondly, that the same is demonstratively evinced from t 
both the Old and the New Testament. 

To begin with the Old Testament ; I claim a right of consi- 
dering the two first Books of Machabees as an integral part of 
them ; because the Catholic church so considers them,! fr° m 
whose tradition, and not from that of the Jews, as St. Austin 
signifies,^ our sacred canon is to be formed. Now in the second 
of these books, it is related that the pious general, Judas Mac- 
habeus, sent twelve thousand drachmas to Jerusalem for sacrifi- 
ces, to be offered for his soldiers, slain in battle, after which nar- 
ration, the inspired writer concludes thus : It is therefore a holy 
and a wholesome thought to -pray for the dead, that they may be 
loosed, j com their sins. 2 Mac. xii. 46. I need not point out the 
inseparable connexion there is between the practice of praying 
for the dead and the belief of an intermediate state of souls, 
since it is evidently needless to pray for the saints in heaven. 

Confut. p. 48. . t Elem. of Theol. vol. i. p. 277. 

t Concil. Cartag. lii. St. Cyp. St. Aug. Innoc I. Gelas, &c. 
§ Lib. 18. De Civ. Dei. 



Letter XLT. 



283 



and useless to pray for the reprobate in hell. But, even Pro- 
testants, who do not receive the Books of Machabees, as canon- 
ical Scripture, venerate them as authentic and holy records : as 
such, then, they bear conclusive testimony of the belief of God's 
people, on this head, one hundred and lifty years before Christ. 
That, the Jews were in the habit of practising some religious 
rites for the relief of the departed, at the beginning of Christi- 
anity, is clear from St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, 
who mentions them, without any censure of them ;* and that 
this people continue to pray for their deceased brethern, at the 
present time, may be learned from any living Jew. 

To come now to the New Testament : what place, I ask, must 
that be, which our Saviour calls Abraham's bosom, where the 
soul of Lazarus reposed, Luke xvi. 22, among the other just 
souls, till he by his sacred passion paid their ransom 1 Not 
heaven, otherwise Dives would have addressed himself to God 
instead of Abraham; but evidently a middle state, as St. Austin 
teaches.t Again, of what place is it that St. Peter speaks, 
where he says, Christ died for our sins ; being put to death in 
the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit ; in which also coming, he 
preached to those spirits that were in prison. 1 Pet. iii. 19. It 
is evidently the same which is mentioned in the apostles' creed : 
He descended into hell: not the hell of the damned, to suffer 
their torments, as the blasphemer, Calvin, asserts,^ but the 
prison above-mentioned, or Abraham's bosom, in short, a middle 
state. It is of this prison, according to the holy fathers,^ our 
blessed Master speaks, where he says, / tell thee, thou shalt not 
depart thence, till thou hast, paid the very last mite. Luke xii. 
59. Lastly, what other sense can that passage of St. Paul's 
Epistle to the Corinthians bear, than that which the holy fa- 
thers affix to it,|| where the apostle says, The day of the Lord 
shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work 
of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, he shall receive a 
reward. If any man's work be burnt, he shall suffer loss ; but 
he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. 1 Cor. iii. 13, 15. 
The prelate's diversified attempts to explain away these Scrip- 
tural proofs of purgatory, are really too feeble and inconsistent 

* Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead riie 
not at all ? Why are they then baptized for them ? 1 Cor. xv. 29. 

t De Civit. Dei, 1. xv c. 20. t Instil 1. ii. c. 16. 

§ Tertul. St. Cypr. Origen, St. Ambrose, St. Jerom, &e. 

II Origen, Horn 14 in Levit. &c. St- Ambrose in Ps. 118- St. Jerom, 
1. 2. contra Jovin. St Aug. in Ps. 37, where he prays thus: " Purify me, 
Lord, in this life, that I may not need the chastising fire of those who w\U 

saved, yet so as by fire." 



884 



Letter XL HI. 



to merit being even mentioned. I might here add, as a furthe* 

proof, the denunciation of Christ, concerning blasphemy against 
the Holy Ghost : namely, that this sin shall not be forgiven either 
in this world or in the world to come, Mat. xii. 32 : which words 
clearly imply, that some sins are forgiven in the world to come, 
as the ancient fathers show :* but I hasten to the proofs of this 
doctrine from tradition, on which head the prelate is so ill advised 
as to challenge Catholics. 

11. Bp. Porteus, then, advances, that " Purgatory, in the 
present Popish sense, was not heard of for four hundred years 
after Christ ; nor universally received for one thousand years, 
nor almost in any other church than that of Rome to this day."f 
Here are no less than three egregious falsities, which I proceed 
to show, after stating what his lordship seems not to kiiow, 
namely, that all which is necessary to be believed, on this sub- 
ject, is contained in the following brief declaration of the coun- 
cil of Trent : " There is a purgatory, and the souls, detained 
there, are helped by the prayers of the faithful, and particularly 
by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar. "J St. Chrysostom, the 
light of the eastern church, flourished within three hundred 
years of the age of the apostles, and must be admitted as an 
unexceptionable witness of their doctrine and practice. Now 
he writes as follows : " It was not without good reason OR- 
DAINED BY THE APOSTLES, that mention should be 
made of the dead in the tremendous mysteries, because they 
knew well that these would receive great benefit from it."'^ 
Tertullian, who lived in the age next to that of the apostles, 
speaking of a pious widow, says, " She prays for the soul of 
her husband, and begs refreshment! f° r him." Similar testi- 
monies of St. Cyprian, in the following age are numerous : I 
shall satisfy myself with quoting one of them, where, describing 
the difference between some souls, which are immediately ad- 
mitted into heaven, and others, which are detained in purga- 
tory, he says, " It is one thing to be waiting for pardon ; an- 
other to attain to glory : one thing to be sent to prison, not to 
go from thence till the last farthing is paid ; another to receive 
immediately the reward of faith and virtue : one thing to suffer 
lengthened torments for sin, and to be chastised nnd purified for 
a lung time in th it fire ; another to have cleansed away all sin 
by suffering, '"II namely, by martyrdom. It would take up too 

* St. Aug. De Civit. Dei. 1 21, c. 21. St. Greg. 1 4. Dialog. Bed. in cap 
3, Marc. 1 P. 50. t Sess. xxv. De Purg. 

§ In cap. i. Philip. Horn. 3. U L. De Monogam. c. 10. 

V a. Cypr. 1 4. ep. 2. 



Letter XLIII. 



285 



much time to quote authorities on this subject from St. Cyril of 
Jerusalem, Eusebius, St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, St Jerom, 
St. Augustin, and several other ancient fathers and writers, who 
demonstrate, that the doctrine of the church was the same that 
it is now, not only within a thousand, but also within four hun- 
dred years from the time of Christ, with respect both to pray- 
ers for the deed, and an intermediate state, which we call pur- 
gatory. How express is the authority of the last named farther, 
in particular, where he says and repeats, " Through the pray- 
ers and sacrifices of the church and alms-deeds, God deals 
more mercifully with the departed than their sins deserve !"* 
How affecting is this saint's account of the death of his mother, 
St. Monica, when she entreated him to remember her soul at 
the altar, and when, after her decease, he performed this duty, in 
order, as he declares, " to obtain the pardon of her sins !"f As 
to the doctrine of the oriential churches, which the bishop signi- 
fies is conformable to that of his own, I affirm, as a fact, which 
has been demonstrated,! that there is not one of them which 
agrees with it, nor one of them which does not agree with the 
Catholic church, in the only two points defined by her, namely, 
as to there being a middle state, which we call purgatory, and 
as to the souls, detained in it, being helped by the prayers of 
the living faithful. True it is, they do not generally believe, 
that these souls are punished by a material fire ; but neither 
does our church require a belief of this opinion ; and accord- 
ingly, she made a union with the Greeks in the council of 
Florence, on their barely confessing and subscribing the afore- 
said two articles. 

III. I should do an injury, Rev. sir, to my cause, were I to 
pass over the concessions of eminent Protestant prelates and 
other writers on the matter in debate. On some occasions Lu- 
ther admits of purgatory, as an article founded on Scripture. § 
Melancthon confesses that the ancients prayed for the dead, and 
says that the Lutherans do not find fault with it. fj Calvin inti- 
mates, that the souls of all the just are detained in Abraham's 
bosom till the day of judgment. % In the first liturgy of the 
church of England, which was drawn up by Cranmer and Rid- 
ley, and declared by act of parliament to have been framed by 
inspiration of the Holy Ghost, there is an express prayer for the 

* Serm. 172. Enchirid. cap. 109, 110. t Confess. 1. ix. c. 13. 

% See the Confessions of the different Oriental churches in the Perpe» 
tuite, &c. 

§ Assertiones, Art. 27. Disput. Leipsie. 

■J Apolog. Gonf Aug. IT Instit. L iil c. 5. 



286 



Letter XLIII. 



departed, that " God would grant them mercy and everlasting 

peace."* It can be shown that the following bishops of you? 
church believed that the dead ought to be prayed for, Andrews, 
Usher, Montague, Taylor, Forbes, Sheldon, Barrow of St. 
Asaph's and Blaridford.f To these I may add the religious Dr. 
Johnson, whose published Meditations prove, that he constantly 
prayed for his deceased wife. But what need is there of more 
words on the subject, when it is clear that modern Protestants, 
in shutting up the Catholic purgatory for imperfect just souls, 
have opened another general ofte for them, and all the wicked 
of every sort whatsoever ! It is well known that the disciples 
of Calvin, at Geneva, and, perhaps, every where else, instead 
of adhering to his doctrine, in condemning mortals to eternal 
torments, without any fault on their part, now hold that the 
most confirmed in guilt and the finally impenitent shall, in the 
end, be saved :J thus establishing, as Fletcher of Madeley ob- 
serves, " a general purgatory."^ A late celebrated theological, 
as well as philosophical writer of our own country, Dr. Priestly, 
being on his deathbed, called for Simpson's work On the Dura 
tion of Future Punishment, which he recommended in these 
terms : " It contains my sentiments : we shall all meet finally : 
we only require different degrees of discipline, suited to our dif- 
ferent tempers, to prepare us for final happiness."]] Here again 
is a general Protestant purgatory : and why should Satan and 
his crew be denied the benefit of it ? But to confine myself to 
eminent divines of the established church. One of its celebra- 
ted preachers, who, of course, " never mentions hell to ears po- 
lite," expresses his wish, " to banish the subject of everlasting 
punishment from all pulpits, as containing a doctrine, at once 
improper and uncertain. "fl which sentiment is applauded by an- 
other eminent divine, who reviews that sermon in the British 
Critic.** Another modern divine censures the threat of eter- 
nal perdition as a cause of infidelity."ti The renowned Dr. Pa- 
ley, (but here we are getting into quite novel systems of theolo- 
gy, which will force a smile from its old students, notwithstand- 
ing the awfulness of the subject) Dr. Paley, I say, so far softens 

* See the form in Collier'3 Ecc. Hist, vol ii. p. 257. 

t Collier's Hist. — N. B. The present bishop of Exeter, in a sermon juet 
published, prays for the soul of our poor princess Charlotte, " as far as this 
is lawful and profitable." 

i Encyclo. Art Geneva. § Checks to Antinom. vol. 4 

II See Edinb. Review, Oct. ITJG. 

IT Sermons by Rev. W. Gilpin, Preb. of Sarum. 

** British Critic, Jan. 1*02. 

fi Rev. Mr. Polwhele's Let. to Dr. Hawker. 



Letter XLI1L 



267 



(he punishment of the infernal regions, as to suppose that, 
u There may be very little to choose between the condition of 
some who are in hell, and others who are in heaven !"* In the 
same liberal spirit the Cambridge professor of divinity teaches, 
that " God's wrath and damnation are more terrible in the sound 
than the sensef and that being damned does not imply any fixed 
degree of evil. "J In another part of his Lectures, he expresses 
his hope, and quotes Dr. Hartley, as expressing the same, that 
" all men will be ultimately happy, when punishment, had done 
its work in reforming principles and conduct. If this senti- 
ment be not sufficiently explicit in favour of purgatory, take the 
following, from a passage in which he is directly lecturing on 
the subject. " With regard to the doctrine of purgatory, though 
it may not be founded either in reason or in Scripture, it is not 
unnatural. Who can bear the thought of dwelling in everlasting 
torments ? Yet who can say that a God everlastingly just, will 
not inflict them ? The mind of man seeks for some resource : 
it finds one only ; in conceiving that some temporary punishment, 
after death, may purify the soul from its moral pollutions, and 
make it, at last, acceptable, even to a deity, infinitely pure."|| 

IV. Bishop Porteus intimates that the doctrine of a middlg 
state of souls was borrowed from Pagan fable and philosophy. 
— In answer to this, I say, that, if Plato,^ Virgil, and other 
heathens, ancient and modern, as likewise Mo hornet and his 
disciples, together with the Protestant writers quoted above, 
have embraced this doctrine, it only shows how conformable it 
is to the dictates of natural religion. I have proved, by va- 
rious arguments, that a temporary punishment generally re- 
mains due, to sin, after the guilt and eternal punishment due to 
it, have been remitted. Again, we know from Scripture, that 
even the just man falls seven times, Prov. xxiv. 17, and that men 
must give an account of every idle word that they speak, Mat. xii. 
36. On the other hand, we are conscious that there is not an 
instant of our life, in which this may not suddenly terminate, 
without the possibility of our calling upon God for mercy. 
What then, I ask, will become of souls which are surprised in 
either of these predicaments 1 We are sure from Scripture and 
reason that nothing defiled shall enter heaven, Rev. xxi. 27: 
will then our just and merciful Judge make no distinction in 

* Moral and Polit. Philos. t Lect. vol. iii. p. 154. t Ibid. 

§ Vol. ii. p. 390. It is to be observed that the doctrine of the final sal- 
vation of the wicked is expressly condemned in the 42d Article of the 
chutch of England, A. D 1552. * II Vol. iv. p. 112. 

H Plato in Gorgia, Virgil's ^Eneid, 1, 6, the Koran. 



288 



Letter XL TIL 



guiltiness, as bishop Fowler and other rigid Protestants main- 
tain ?* Will he condemn to the same eternal punishment the 
poor child who has died under the guilt of a lie of excuse, and 
the abandoned wretch who has died in the act of murdering his 
father ? To say that he will, is so monstrous a doctrine in it- 
self, and so contrary to Scripture, which declares that God will 
render to every man according to his , deeds, Rom. ii. 6, that it 
seems to be universally exploded.t The evident consequence of 
this is, that there are some venial or pardonable sins, for the ex- 
piation of which, as well as of the temporary punishment due to 
other sins, a place of temporary punishment is provided in the 
next life, where, however, the souls detained may be relieved, 
by the prayers, alms, and sacrifices of the faithful here on earth. 
O ! how consoling is the belief and practice of Catholics in this 
matter, compared with those of Protestants ! The latter show 
their regard for their departed friends in costly pomp and fea- 
thered pageantry ; while their burial service is a cold, disconso- 
late ceremony ; and as to any further communication with the 
deceased, when the grave closes on their remains, they do not 
so much as imagine any. On the other hand, we Catholics 
know, that death itself cannot dissolve the communion of saints, 
which subsists in our church, nor prevent an intercouse of kind 
and often beneficial offices between us and our departed friends. 
Oftentimes we can help them more effectually, in the other 
world, by our prayers, our sacrifices, and our alms-deeds, than 
we could in this by any temporary benefits we could bestow 
upon them. Hence we are instructed to celebrate the obsequies 
of the dead by all such good works ; and, accordingly, our fune- 
ral service consists of psalms and prayers, offered up for their 
repose and eternal felicity. These acts of devotion, pious Ca- 
tholics perform for the deceased, who were near and dear to 
them, and indeed for the dead in general, every day, but partic- 
ularly on the respective anniversaries of the deceased. Such 
benefits, we are assured, will be paid with rich interest, by those 
souls to whose bliss we have contributed, when they attain to 
it ; and if they should not be in a condition to help us, the God 
of mercy at least will abundantly reward our charity. On the 
other hand, what a comfort and support must it be to our minds, 
when our turn comes to descend into the grave, to reflect that we 
shali continue to live in the constant thoughts and daily devo- 
tions of our Catholic relatives and friends ! 

I am, &c. J. M. 

* Calvin, 1. iii. c. 12. Fowler in Watson's Tracts, vol. vi. p. 382. 
t See Dr. Hey, vol iii. pp. 384, 451, 453. 



289 



LETTER XLIV. 
To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
extreme unction. 

Rev. Sir, 

The Council of Trent terms the sacrament of extreme unc- 
tion, the Consummation of Penance, and therefore, as bishop Por- 
teus makes this the subject of a charge against our church, here 
is the proper place for me to answer it. His lordship writes a 
long chapter upon it, because his business is to gloss over the 
clear testimony which the apostle St. James bears to the realit) 
of this sacrament : in return, I shall write a short letter in refu- 
tation of his chapter, because I have little more to do than to 
cite that testimony, as it stands in the New Testament : it is 
this : Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the priests oj 
the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him, with oil, in 
the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the. 
sick man ; and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he be in 
sins, they shall be forgiven him, James v. 14, 15. Here we see 
all that is requsite, according to the English Protestant Cate- 
chism, to constitute a sacrament,* for there " is an outward 
visible sign," namely, the anointing with oil: there "is an in- 
ward spiritual grace, given unto us," namely, the saving of the 
sick and the forgiveness of his sins. Lastly, there is the Ordina- 
tion of Christ, as the means by which the same is received un- 
less the bishop chooses to allege, that the holy apostle fabricated 
a Sacrament, or means of grace, without any authority for this 
purpose from his heavenly Master. What then does his lord- 
ship say, in opposition to this divine warrant for our Sacra- 
ment ? He says, that the anointing of the sick by eldcs or old 
men, was the appointed method of miraculously curing (hem in 
primitive times, which would imply, that no Christian died in 
| those times, except when either oil or, old men were not to be 
met with? He adds, that the forgiveness of the sick man's sins, 
means the cures of his corporal diseases l\ And after all this, 
he boasts of building his religion on mere Scripture, in its plain, 
unglossed meaning \\ In reading all this, I own I cannot help 
revolving in my mind the above quoted profane parody of Lu- 
ther, on the first words of Scripture, in which he ridicules the 
distortion of it by many Protestants of his time.^ With the 

* In the Book of Common Prayer t P. 59. X P. 69 

i § •« In principio Deus creavit caelum et terram:" In the beginning tSe 
I wckoo devoured the sparrow and its feathers. 
25 



290 



Letter XLIV. 



same confidence his lordship adds : " Our laying aside a cere- 
mony (the anointing) which has long been useless, &c. can be no 
loss, while every thing that is truly, valuable in St. James's di- 
rection is preserved in our office for visiting the sick."* Ex- 
actly in this manner our friends, the Quakers, undertake to 
prove, that, in laying aside the ceremony of washing catechu- 
mens with water, they " have preserved every thing that is 
truly valuable" in the sacrament of Baptism !f But where shall 
we find an end of the inconsistencies and impieties of deluded 
Christians, who refuse to hear that church which Christ has 
appointed to explain to them the truths of religion 1 

There is not more truth in the prelate's assertion, that there 
is no mention of anointing with oil, among the primitive Chris- 
tians, except in miraculous cures, during the first 600 years : 
for the celebrated Origen, who was born in the age next to that 
of the apostles, after speaking of an humble confession of sins, 
as a means of obtaining their pardon, adds to it, the anointing 
with oil, prescribed by St. James.\ St. Chrysostom, who lived 
in the fourth century, speaking of the power of priests in remit- 
ting sin, says, they exert it when they are called in to perform 
the rite mentioned by St. James, &c.§ The testimony of Pope 
Innocent I. in the same age, is so express as to the warrant for 
this sacrament, the matter, the minister, and the subjects of 
it ;|| that though the bishop alluded to the testimony, he does 
not choose to grapple with it, or even to quote it.TT I P a ss over 
the irrefragable authorities of St. Cyril of Alexandria, Victor of 
Antioch, St. Gregory the Great, and our Venerable Bede, in 
order once more to recur to that short but convincing proof, 
that the Catholic church has not invented those sacraments and 
doctrines in latter ages, which Protestants assert were unknown 
in the primitive ages. The Nestorians then broke off from the 
communion of the church in 431, and the Eutychians in 451 : 
these rival sects exist, in numerous congregations, throughout the 
east, at the present day, and they both, as well as the Greeks, 
Armenians, &c. maintain, in belief and practice, Extreme 
Uuction as one of the seven sacraments. Nothing can so satis- 
factorily vindicate our church from the charge of imposition or 
innovation, in the particulars mentioned, as these facts do. 
How much more consistently has the impious Friar, Martin Lu- 
ther, acted in denying at once the authority of St. James's 
Epistle, and condemning it as " a chaffy composition, and un- 



* P. 61. t Barclay's Apology, Prop. 12. 

$ Horn. ii. in Levit. § De Sacerd. 1. iii. 

y Epist. ad Decent. Euguh. IT P. 61. 



Letter XLV. 



29i 



worthy an apostle,"* than Bp. Porteus, with his confederates 
do, who attempt to explain away the clear proofs of extreme 
unction, contained in it ? In the mean time, in spite of them 
all, pious Catholics will continue to reap inestimable consola- 
tion and grace, in the time of man's greatest need, for the sake 
of which this and the other helps of their church, were provided 
by our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XLV. 

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
whether the pope be antichrist. 

Rev. Sir, 

There remains but one more question of doctrine to be dis- 
cussed between me and your favourite controvertist, bishop Por- 
teus, which is concerning the character and power of the Pope ; 
and this he compresses into a narrow compass, among a variety 
of miscellaneous matters, in the latter part of his book. How- 
ever, as it is a doctrine of first-rate importance, against which I 
make no doubt but several of your Salopian Society have been 
eariy and bitterly prejudiced, 1 propose to treat it, at some length, 
and in a regular way. To do this, I must begin with the inqui- 
ry, whether the Pope be really and truly, the man of sin, and the 
son of perdition, described by St. Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 1, 10 , in 
short, the Antichrist spoken of by St. John, 1 John ii. 18, and 
called by him, A beast with seven heads and ten horns, Revel, 
xiii. 1, whose See or church is the great harlot, the mother of the 
1 fornications and abominations of the earth, Ibid. xvii. 5. I shud- 
der to repeat these blasphemies, and I blush to hear them utter- 
ed by my fellow Christians and countrymen, who derive their 
liturgy, their ministry, their Christianity, and civilization, from 
the Pope and the chnrch of Rome ; but they have been too gen- 
erally taught by the learned, and believed by the ignorant, for 
■re to pass them by in silence on this occasion. One of bishop 
Porteus's colleagues bishop of Hallifax, speaks of this doctrine 
concerning the Pope and Rome, as long being the common 
symbol of Protestantism. "t Certain it is, that the author of it, 
the outrageous Martin Luther, may be said to have established 
Protestantism upon this principle : he had at first submitted his 

• « Stramminosa." Prefat. in Ep. Jac. Jenae de Captiv. Babyl 
t Sermons by bishop Hallifax, preached at the Lecture founded by the 
<l»te Mshop Warburton, to prove the apostacy of Papal Rome, p. 27. 



292 



Letter XLV. 



religious controversies to the decision of the Pope, protesting to 
him thus : " Whether you give life or death, approve or reprove, 
as you may judge best, I will hearken to your voice, as to that of 
Christ himself :"* but no sooner did Pope Leo condemn his doc- 
trine, than he published his book " Against the execrable Bull 
of Antichrist,"f as he qualified it. In like manner, Melancthon, 
Bullinger, and many others of Luther's followers, publicly main- 
tained, that the Pope is Antichrist, as did afterwards Calvin, 
Beza, and the writers of that party in general. This party con- 
sidered this doctrine so essential, ; s to vote it an article of faith, 
in their synod of Gap, held in 16034 The writers in defence 
of this impious tenet in our island, are as numerous as those of 
the whole continent put together, John Fox, Whitaker, Fulke, 
Willet, sir Isaac Newton, Mede, Lowman, Towson, Bicheno, 
Rett, &c. with the bishops, Fowler, Warburton, Newton, Halli- 
fax, Hurd, Watson, and others, too numerous to be here men- 
tioned. One of these writers, whose work has but just appear- 
ed, has collected a new and quite whimsical system from the 
Scriptures concerning Antichrist. Hitherto, Protestant exposi- 
tors have been content to apply the character and attributes of 
Antichrist to a succession of Roman pontiffs ; but the Rev. H. 
Kett professes to have discovered, that the said Antichrist is, at 
the same time, every Pope who has filled the See of Rome 
since the year 756, to the number of one hundred and sixty, to- 
gether with the whole of what he calls " the Mahometan power," 
from a period more remote by a century and a half, and the 
whole of infidelity, which he traces to a still more ancient ori- 
gin than even MahometaSiism.§ 

That the first Pope, St. Peter, on whom Christ declared, 
that he built his church, Mat. xvi. 18, was not Antichrist, I trust 
1 need not prove, nor, indeed, his third successor in the Pope- 
dom, St. Clement, since St. Paul testifies of him, that his name 
is written in the book of life, Phil. iv. 3. In like manner, there 
is no need of my demonstrating, that the See of Rome was not 
the harlot of Revelations, when St. Paul certified of its mem- 
bers, that their faith was spoken of throughout the whole world, 
Rom i. 8. At what particular period, then, I now ask, as I 
asked Mr. Brown, in one of my former letters, did the grand 

* Epist ad Leon X. A. D. 1518. 

t Tom. ii. t Bossuet's Variat P. ii. B. 13. 

§ History of the Interpreter of Prophecy, by H. Kett, B. D. This wri- 
ter's attempt to transform the great supporters of the Pope, St. Jerora, 
Pope Gregory I, St. Bernard, &c. into witnesses that the Pope is Antichrist, 
because they condemn certain acts as Antichristian, is truly ridiculous. 



Letter XLV. 



293 



apostasy take place, by which the head pastor of the church of 
;• Christ, became his declared enemy, in short, the Antichrst, and 
,i by which the church, whose faith had been divinely authenti- 
i cated, became the great harlot, full of the names of blasphemy? 

■ This revolution, had it really taken place, would have been the 
I greatest and the most remarkable that ever happened since the 
| ( i deluge : hence, we might expect, that the witnesses, who profess 
I. to bear testimony to its reality, would agree, as to the time of 
, its taking place. Let us now observe how far this is the fact. 

■ The Lutheran Braunbom, who writes the most copiously, and 
, the most confidently of this event, tells us, that the Popish An- 
f tichrist was borne in the year of Christ 86, that he grew to his 
) full size in 376, that he was at his greatest strength in 636, that 
I he began to decline in 1086, that he would die in 1640, and 
I that the world would end in 1711* Sebastian Francus af- 
. firms, that Antichrist appeared immediately after the apostles, 
. and caused the external church, with its faith and sacraments, 
. to disappear. t The Protestant church of Transylvania pub- 
lished that Antichrist first appeared A. D. 200. J Napper de- 

. clared that his coming was about 313, and that Pope Silvester 

] was the man.§ Melancthon says, that Pope Zozimus, in 420, 
was the first Antichrist,! while Beza transfers this character to 

i the great and good St. Leo, A. D. 440. % Fleming fixes on 
the year 606 as the year of this great event, Bp. Newton on 

. the year 727 ; but all agree, says the Rev. Henry Kett, " that 
the Antichristian power was fully established in 757, or 758."** > 
Notwithstanding this confident assertion, Cranmer's brother-in- 
law, Bullinger, had, long before, assigned the year 763 as the 
era of this grand revolution, ft and Junius had put it off to 

, 1073. Musculus could not discover Antichrist in the church 
till about 1200, Fox not till 1300,^ and Martin Luther, as we 
have seen, not till his doctrine was condemned by Pope Leo in 
1520. Such are the inconsistencies and contradictions of those 

j learned Protestants, who profess to see so clearly the verifica- 
tion of the prophecies concerning Antichrist in the Roman pon- 
tiffs. I say contradictions, because those among them who pro- 

, nounce Pope Gregory, or Leo the Great, or Pope Silvester, to 
have been Antichrist, must contradict those others, who admit 
| them to have been respectively Christian pastors and saints. 
Now what credit do men of sense give to an account of any 



* Bayle's Diet. Braunbom. 

t De Abolend. Christ, per Antichris. 

il In locis postremo edit. 

Vol. ii. p. 58. tt In Apoc. 

25* 



t De Alvegand. Stat. Ecclea 
§ Upon the Revel. 
IT In Confess General. 
tt In Eandem. 



294 



Letter XLV. 



sort, the vouchers for which contradict each other 1 Certainly 

none at all. 

Nor are the predictions of these egregious interpreters, con- 
cerning the death ef Antichrist, and the destruction of Popery, 
more consistent with one another, than their accounts of the 
birth and progress of them both. We have seen above, that 
Braunbom prognosticated that the death of the papal Antichrist 
would take place in the year 1640. John Fox foretold it would 
happen in 1666. The incomparable Joseph Mede, as bishop 
Hailifax calls him,* by a particular calculation of his own in- 
vention, undertook to demonstrate that the Papacy .would be 
finally destroyed in 1653.f The Calvinist minister Jurieau, 
who had adopted this system, fearing that the event would not 
verify it, found a pretext to lengthen the term, first to 1690, 
and afterwards to 1710. But he lived to witness a disappoint- 
ment at each of these periods. { Alix, another Huguenot 
preacher, predicted that the fatal catastrophe would certainly 
take place in 1716.^ Whiston, who pretended to find out the 
longitude, pretended also to discover that the Popedom would 
terminate in 1714 : finding himself mistaken, he guessed a sec- 
ond time, and fixed on the year 1735.|| At length, Mr. Rett, 
from the success of his Antichrist of Infidelity against his Anti- 
christ of Popery, about twenty years ago, (for he feels no diffi- 
culty in dividing Satan against himself Mat. xii. 6,) foretold 
that the long wished for event was at the eve of being accom- 
plished, % and Mr. Daubeny having, with several other preach- 
ers, witnessed Pope Pius VI. in chains, and Rome possessed by 
French Atheists, sounds the trumpet of victory, and exclaims, 
all is accomplished.** Empty triumph of the enemies of the 
church ! They ought to have learned, from her lengthened 
history, that she never proves the truth of Christ's promises so 
evidently as when she seems sinking under the waves of perse- 
cution ; and that the chair of Peter never shines so gloriously, 
as when it is filled by a dying martyr, like Pius VI, or a cap- 
tive confessor, like Pius VII ; however triumphant for a time, 
their persecutors may appear ! 

But these dealers in prophecy undertake to demonstrate from 
the characters of Antichrist, as pointed out by St. Paul and St. 
John, that this succession of Popes is the very man in question : 

* P. 286. t Bayle's Diet. t Ibid. § Ibid. 

I! Essay on Revel. IT Vol. ii. chap. 1. 

** The fall of Papal Rome. In like manner G. S. Faber, in his two 
Sermons before the University of Oxford, in 1799, boasts that " the im- 
mense Gothic structure of Popery, built on superstition and buttressed with 
tortures, has crumbled to dust." 



Letter XLV. v 



295 



accordingly the bishop of Landaff says ; " I have known the 
infidelity of more than one young man happily removed, by 
showing him the characters of Popery delineated by St. Paul, 
in his prophecy concerning The Man of Sin, 2 Thess. ii. and 
in that concerning the apostasy of the latter times, 1 Tim. iv. 
1."* In proof of this point, he republishes the Dissenter, Ben- 
son's Dissertation, on The man of Sin ;f I purpose, therefore, 
making a few remarks on the leading points of this adoptive 
child of his lordship, as also upon some of the Rev. Mr. Kett's 
illustrations of them. First, then, we all know that the Revela- 
tion of the Man of Sin will be accompanied with a revolt or 
falling off, in other words, with a great apostasy ; but it is a 
question to be discussed between me and bishop Watson, wheth- 
er this character of apostasy is more applicable to the Catho- 
lic church, or to that class of Religionists who adopt his opin- 
ions ? To decide this point, let me ask, what are the first and 
principal articles of the three creeds professed by his church 
as well as by ours, that of the apostles, that of Nice, and that 
of St. Athanasius, as likewise of his articles, his liturgy, and 
his canons ? Incontestably those which profess a belief in the 
blessed Trinity, and the incarnation of the consubstantial Son 
of the eternal Father. Now it is notorious, that every Catholic 
throughout the world, holds these the fundamental articles of 
Christianity as firmly now as St. Athanasius himself did fifteen 
hundred years ago : but what says his lordship, with number- 
less other Protestant Christians of this country, on these heads ? 
Let the preface to his Collection be consulted,:}: in which, if he 
does not openly deny the Trinity, he excuses the Unitarians, 
who deny it, on the ground that they are afraid of becoming 
idolaters by worshipping Jesus Christ.^ Let his charges be ex- 
amined : in one of which he says to his clergy, that " he does 
not think it safe to tell them what the Christian doctrines are ;"|J 
no, not so much as the unity and trinity of God. In another 
charge, however, the bishop assumes more courage, and in- 
forms his clergy, that " Protestantism consists in believing 
what each one pleases, and in professing what he believes." 
How much should I rejoice to have this question of apostasy, 
between the bishop of Landaff and me, decided by Luther, 
Calvin, Beza, Cranmer, Ridley, and James I, only for the 
proofs which history affords me, that, not content with exclud 
ing him from the class of Christians, they would assuredly 



• Bp, Watson's Collect, p. 7. 

X Vol. i. Pref. p. 15, &c. 

U Bishop Watson's Charge, 1795. 



t Ibid. p. 268. 
§ P. 17. 



296 



Letter XLV. 



burn him at the stake as an apostate. The second character oi 
Antichrist, set down by St. Paul, is, that he opposeth and is 
lifted up above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so 
that he sitteth in the Temple of God, showing himself as if he 
were God, 2 Thess. ii. 4. This character Mr. Benson and 
bishop Watson think applicable to the Pope, who, they say, 
claims the attributes and homage due to the Deity, i leave 
you, Rev. sir, and your friends, to judge of the truth of this 
character, when I inform you, that the Pope has his confessor, 
like other Catholics, to whom he confesses his sins in private : 
and that every day, in saying mass, he bows before the altar, 
and in the presence of the people confesses, that he has w sinned 
in thought, word, and deed," begging them to pray to God for 
him, and that afterwards, in the more solemn part, of it, he pro- 
fesses "his hopes of forgiveness, not through his own merits, 
but through the bounty and grace of Jesus Christ our Lord."* 
The third mark of Antichrist is, that his coming- is according to 
the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and laying wo?i- 
ders, 2 Thess. ii. 9. From this passage of Holy Writ, it ap- 
pears that Antichrist, whenever he does come, will work false, 
illusive prodigies, as the magicians of Pharoah did ; but, from 
the divine promises, it is evident that the disciples of Christ 
would continue to work true miracles, such as he himself 
wrought ; and from the testimony of the holy fathers and all 
ecclesiastical writers, it is incontestible, that certain servants o( 
God have been enabled to work them, from time to time, ever 
since this his promise. This I have elsewhere demonstrated, 
as likewise, that the fact is denied by Protestants, not for want 
of evidence, as to its truth, but because this is necessary for the 
defence of their system.f Still it is* false tbat the Catholic 
church ever claimed a power of working miracles in the order of 
nature, as her opponents pretend : all that we say is, that God is 
pleased, from time to time, to illustrate the true church with real 
miracles, and thereby to show, that she belongs to him. The 
latest dealer in prophecies, who boasts that his books have been 
revised by the bisbop of Lincoln,! by way of showing the con- 
formity between Antichristian Popery and the beast, that did 
great signs, so that he made fire to come down from heaven unto 
the earth, in the sight of men, Rev. xiii. 13, says of the former, 
" even fire is pretended to come down from heaven, as in tne 
case of St. Anthony's fire.'^ I am almost ashamed to refuse 



* Canon of the Mass. t Part ii. Letter, xxiil 

j Interpret, of Prophecy, by H. Kett, LL. B. Pref. 
§ Kett, vol. ii. 23. 



Letter XL VI. 



297 



80 illiterate a cavil. True it is, that the hospital monks of St. 
Anthony were heretofore famous for curing the Erysipelas with 
a peculiar ointment, on which account that disease acquired the 
name of St. Anthony's fire ;* but neither these monks, nor any 
other Catholics, were used to invoke that inflammation, or any 
other burning whatsoever, from heaven or elsewhere. I beg 
that you and your friends will suspend your opinion of the 
fourth alleged resemblance between Antichrist and the Pope, 
that of persecuting the saints, till 1 have leisure to treat that 
subject in greater detail than I can at present. I shall take no 
notice at all of this writer's chronological calculations, nor of the 
anagrams and chronograms by which many Protestant expoun- 
ders have endeavoured to extract the mysterious number six 
hundred and sixty-six from the name or title of certain Popes, 
farther than to observe, that ingenious Catholics have extracted 
the same number from the name Martinus Luthtrus, and even 
from that of David Chrytheus, who was the most celebrated 
inventor of those riddles. 

Such are the grounds on which certain refractory children, 
in modern ages, have ventured to call their true mother a pros- 
titute, and the common father of Christians, the author of their 
own conversion from Paganism, The Man of Sin, and the very 
Antichrist. But they do not really believe what they declare ; 
their object being only to inflame the ignorant multitude. 1 
have sufficient reason to think this, when 1 hear a Luther threat- 
ening to unsay all that he had said against the Pope, a Melanc- 
thon lamenting, that Protestants had renounced him, a Beza 
negotiating, to return to him, and a late Warburton-lecturer la- 
menting, on his deathbed, that he could not do the same. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XLV1. 

To the Rev. ROBERT CLAYTON, M. A. 
on the pope's supremacy. 

Rev. Sir, 

This acknowledges the honour of three different letters from 
you, which I have not, till now, been able to notice. The ob- 
jections, contained in the two former, are either answered, or will, 
with the help of God, be answered by me. The chief purport 
of your last, is to assure me, that the absurd and impious tenet, 
of the Pope being Antichrist, never was a part of your faith nol 

* Paquotius, In Molanum De Sacr. Imag. 



298 



Letter XLVL 



even your opinion ; but that having read over Dr. Barrow's 

Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy, as well as what bishop Por« 
teus has published upon it, you cannot but be of archbishop 
Tillotson's mind, who published the above named treatise, 
namely, that " The Pope's Supremacy is not only an indefensi- 
ble, but also an impudent cause ; that there is not one tolerable 
argument for it, and that there are a thousand invincible rea- 
sons against it."* Your liberality, Rev. sir, on the former 
point, justifies the idea I had formed of you : with respect to 
the second, whether the Pope's claim of Supremacy, or Tillot- 
son's assertion concerning it, is impudent, I shall leave you to 
determine, when you shall have perused the present letter. But, 
as this, like other subjects of our controversy, has been envel- 
oped in a cloud of misrepresentation, I must begin with dissi- 
pating this cloud, and with clearly stating what the faith of the 
Catholic church is concerning the matter in question. 

It is not, then, the faith of this church, that the Pope has any 
civil or temporal supremacy, by virtue of which he can depose 
princes, or give or take away the property of other persons, 
out of his own domain : for even the incarnate Son of God, 
from whom he derives the supremacy, which he possesses, did 
not claim, here upon earth, any right of the above-mentioned 
kind : on the contrary, he positively declared, that his kingdom 
is not of this world ! Hence, the Catholics of both our Islands, 
have, without impeachment even from Rome, denied, upon 
oath, that " the Pope has any civil jurisdiction, power, superi- 
ority, or pre-eminence, directly or indirectly, within this 
realm. f" But, as it is undeniable, that different Popes, in 
former ages, have pronounced sentence of deposition against 
certain contemporary princes, and, as great numbers of theolo- 
gians have held (though not as a matter of faith) that they had 
a right to do so, it seems proper, by way of mitigating the odi- 
um which Dr. Porteus and other Protestants raise against them, 
on this head, to state the grounds, on which the pontiffs acted 
and the divines reasoned in this business. Heretofore, the 
kingdoms, principalities, and states, composing the Latin church, 
when they were all of the same religion, formed, as it were, one 
Christian republic, of which the Pope was the accredited head. 
Now, as mankind have been sensible at all times, that the duty 
of civil allegiance and submission cannot extend beyond a cer- 
tain point, and that they ought not to surrender their property, 
lives and morality, to be sported with by a Nero or a Helioga- 
balus ; instead of deciding the nice point for themselves, when 



* Tillotson's Preface tc Barrow's Tieatise. 



t 31 Geo. III. c. 32 



Letter XLVL 



299 



resistance becomes lawful, they thought it right to be guided by 
their chief pastor. The kings and princes themselves acknow- 
ledged this right in the Pope, and frequently applied to him to 
make use of his indirect, temporal power, as appears in number- 
less instances.* In latter ages, however, since Christendom 
has been disturbed by a variety of religions, this power of the 
pontiff has been generally withdrawn : princes make war upon 
each other, at their pleasure, and subjects rebel against thpir 
princes, as their passions dictate,! to the great detriment of both 
parties, as may be gathered from what sir Edward Sandys, an 
early and zealous Protestant writes. " The Pope was the com- 
mon Father, adviser, and conductor of Christians, to reconcile 
their enmities, and decide their differences. "| 1 have to observe, 

* See in Mat. Paris, A. D. 1195, the appeal of our king Richard I, to 
Pope Celestin III, against the duke of Austria for having detained him 
prisoner at Trivallis, and the Pope's sentence of excommunication against 
that duke for refusing to do him justice. 

t In every country, in which Protestantism was preached, sedition and 
rebellion, with the total or partial deposition of the lawful sovereign, en- 
sued, not without the active concurrence of the preachers themselves. 
Luther formed a league of princes and states in Germany against the em- 
peror, which desolated the empire for more than a century. His disciples, 
Mu ncer and Stork, taking advantage of the pretended evangelical liberty, 
which he taught, at the head of 40,000 Anabaptists, claimed the empire 
and possession of the world, in quality of Ike meek ones, and enforced their 
demand with fire and "sword, dispossessing princes and lawful owners, &c. 
Zuinglius lighted up a similar flame throughout Switzerland, at Geneva, 
&c. and died fighting, sword in hand, for the Reformation, which he 
preached. The United States embraced Protestantism and renounced their 
sovereign, Philip, at the same time. The Calvinists of France, in con- 
formity with the doctrine of their master, namely, that " princes deprive 
themselves of their power, when they resist God, and that it is better to 
spit in their faces than obey them," Pan. vi. 22, as soon as they found 
themselves strong enough, rose in arms against their sovereigns, and dis- 
possessed them of half their dominions. Knox, Goodman, Buchanan, and 
the other preachers of i resbyterianism in Scotland, having taught the peo- 
ple, that " princes maybe deposed by their subjects, if they be tyrants 
against God and his truth:" and that " It is blasphemy to say that kings are 
to be obeyed, good or bad," disposed them for the perpetration of those riots 
and violences, including the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and the deposition 
and captivity of their lawful sovereign, by which Protestantism was estab- 
lished in that country. With respect to England, no sooner was the son of 
Henry dead, than a Protestant usurper, lady Jane, was set up, in prejudice 
of his daughters, Mary and Elizabeth, and supported by Cranmer, Ridley, 
Latimer, Sandys, Poynet, and every Reformer of any note, because she was 
a Protestant. Finally, it was upon the principles of the Reformation, es- 
pecially that of each man's explaining the Scripture for himself, and a ha- 
tred of Popery, that the Grand Rebellion was begun and carried on, till the 
k'ig was beheaded and the constitution destroyed. Has then the cause oi 
humanity, or that of peace and order, been benefitted by the change io 
question? 

X Survey of Europe, p. 202> 



300 



Letter XLVL 



secondly, mat the question here is not about the personal quali- 
ties, or conduct of any particular Pope, or of the Popes in gene- 
ral ; at the same time, it is proper to state, that in a list of two 
hundred and fifty- three Popes, who have successively filled the 
chair of St. Peter, only a small comparative number of them, 
have disgraced it, while a great proportion of them have done 
honour to it, by their virtues and conduct. On this head, I must 
again quote Addison, who says ; " the Pope is generally a man 
of learning and virtue, mature in years and experience, who has 
seldom any vanity or pleasure to gratify at his people's ex- 
pense, and is neither encumbered with wife and children, or 
mistresses. '•* 

In the third place, I must remind you and my other friends, 
that I have nothing here to do with the doctrine of the Pope's 
individual infallibility, (when pronouncing Ex Cathedra, as the 
term is, he addresses the whole church, and delivers the faith of 
it upon some contested article, )t nor would you, in case you 
were to become a Catholic, be required to believe in any doc- 
trines, except such as are held by the whole Catholic church, 
with the Pope at its head. But, without entering into this or 
any other scholastic question, i shall content myself with ob- 
serving, that it is impossible for any man of candour and learn- 
ing, not to concur with a celebrated Protestant author, namely, 
Causabon, who writes thus : " No one, who is the least versed 
in ecclesiastical history, can doubt, that God made use of the 
holy See, during many ages, to preserve the doctrines of faith !"J 

At length we arrive at the question itself, which is, whether 
the bishop of Rome, who, by pre-eminence, is called Papa 
[Pope, ox father of the faithful) is or is not entitled to a superior 
rank and jurisdiction, above other bishops of the Christian 
church, so as to be its spiritual head here upon earth, and so 
that his See is the centre of Catholic unity ? All Catholics ne- 
cessarily hold the affirmative of this question, while the above- 

* Remarks on Italy, p. 112. 

t The following is a specimen of Barrow's and Tillotson's chicanery in 
their Treatise of the Supremacy. Bellarmin, in working up an argument 
on the Pope's infallibility, says, hypot helically by way of proving the false- 
hood of his opponent's doctrine, that " this doctrine would oblige the 
church to believe vices to be good, and virtues to be bad, in case the Pope 
were to err in teaching this." Bell. De Rom. Pont. 1. iv. c. 5. Hence 
these writers take occasion to affirm, that Bellarmin positively teaches^ 
that " if the Pope should err. by enjc ining vices, or forbidding virtues, the 
church should be bound to believe vices to be good and virtues evil!" p. 
203. This shameful misrepresentation has been taken up by most suhso 
quent Prote tant controvertists 

t Exereit. xv. ad Antial. Baron 



Letter XLV1. 



301 



mentioned tergiversating primate denies, that there is a tolera- 
ble argument in its faviour.* Let us begin with consulting the 
New Testament, in order to see, whether or no the first Pope or 
bishop of Rome. St. Peter, was any way superior to the other 
apostles. St. Matthew, in numbering up the apostles, expressly 
says of him, THE FIRST, Simon, mho is called Peter, Mat. 
x. 2. In like manner, the other Evangelists, while they class 
the other apostles differently, still give the first place to Peter. t 
In fact, as Bossuet observes,^ " St. Peter was the first to con- 
fess his faith in Christ the first to whom Christ appeared, 
after his resurrection ;|| the first to preach the belief of this to 
the people the first to convert the Jews ;** and the first to 
receive the Gentiles. "ff Again I would ask, is there no dis- 
tinction implied, in St. Peter's being called upon by Christ to 
declare three several times, that he loved him, and even that he 
loved him more than his fellow apostles, and in his being each 
time charged to feed Christs's lambs, and, at length, to feed his 
she<p also, whom the lambs are used to follow What else 
is here signified, but that this apostle was to act the part of a 
shepherd, not only with respect to the flock in general, but also 
with respect to the pastors themselves ? The same is plainly 
signified by our Lord's prayer for the faith of this apostle, in 
particular, and the charge that he subsequently gave him : Simon, 
Simon, behold Salan has desired to have you, that he may sift 
you, as wheat : but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail 
not ; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren. Luke 
xxii. 32. Is there no mysterious meaning in the circumstance, 
marked by the Evangelist, of Christ's entering into Simon's 
ship, in preference to that of James and John, in order to teach 
the people out of it, and in the subsequent miraculous draught oj 
fishes, together with our Lord's prophetic declaration to Simon : 
Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men, Luke v. 3. 10. 
But the strongest proof of St. Peter's superior dignity and juris- 
diction consists in that explicit and energetical declaration, of 

* Tillotson's father was an Anabaptist, and he himself was professedly £ 
Puritan preacher, till the Restoration, so that there is reason to doubt 
whether he ever received either Episcopal Ordination or Baptism. His 
successor, Seeker, was also a Dissenter, and his baptism has been called in 
question. The former, with bishop Burnet, was called upon to attend loru 
Russel at his execution, when they absolutely insisted, as a point necessary 
for salvation, on his disclaiming the lawfulness of resistance in any case 
whatever. Presently after, the revolution happening, they themselves de- 
clared for Lord Russel's principles. 

t Mark iii. 16. Luke vi. 14. Acts i. 13 t Orat. ad Cler. 

§ Mat. xvi. 16. II Luke xxvi. 34. IT Acts ii. 14. 

** Ver 37. tt Ibid. x. 47. tt John xxi. 15. 

36 



302 



Letter XLVI. 



our Saviour to him, in the quarters of Cesarea Philippi, upon his 

making that glorious confession of our Lord's divinity : Thou 
art Christ, the Son of the living God. Our Lord had mysteri- 
ously changed his name, at his first interview with him, wheo 
Jesus looking upon him, said, Thou art Simon, the Son of Jona ; 
thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter, John i. 
42 : and, on the present occasion, he explains the mystery, where 
he says, Blessed art thou Simon, Bar- Jona, because flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father, who is in hea- 
ven : And I say to thee : that thou art Peter (a rock,) and UPON 
THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, and the 
gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and I will give to thee 
the keys of the kingdom of Heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt 
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt 
loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. Mat. xvi. 17, 18, 
19. Where now, I ask, is the sincere Christian, and especially 
the Christian who professes to make Scripture the sole rule of 
his faith, who, with these passages of the inspired text before 
his eyes, will venture, at the risk of his soul, to deny that any 
special dignity or charge was conferred upon St. Peter, in pre- 
ference to the other apostles ? I trust no such Christian is to 
be found in your society. Now, as it is a point agreed upon, at 
least in your church and mine, that bishops, in general, succeed 
to the rank and functions of the apostles, so, by the same rule, 
the successor of St. Peter, in the See of Rome, succeeds to his 
primacy and jurisdiction. This cannot be questioned by any 
serious Christian, who reflects, that, when our Saviour gave his 
orders about feeding his flock, and made/ his declaration about 
building his church, he was not establishing an order of things 
to last during the few years that St. Peter had to live, but one 
that was to last as long as he should have a flock and a church 
on earth, that is to the end of time ; conformably with his pro- 
mise to the apostles, and their successors, in the concluding 
words of St. Matthew : Behold I am with you always, even to 
the end of the world. Mat. xxviii. 20. 

That St. Peter (after governing for a time, the patriarchate 
of Antioch, the capital of the East, and thence sending his 
disciple, Mark, to* establish that of Africa at Alexandria) final- 
ly fixed his own See at Rome, the capital of the world, that hi& 
successors there have each of them exercised the power of su- 
preme pastor, and have been acknowledged as such by all 
Christians, except by notorious heretics and schismatics, from 
the apostolic age down to the present,^the writings of the fa- 
ther*, doctors, and historians of the church unanimously testify 



Letter XLVI. 



303 



St. Paul, having been converted, and raised to the apostleship 
in a miraculous manner, thought it necessary to go up to Jeru- 
salem to see Peter, where he abode with him fifteen days. Galat. 
i. 18. St. Ignatius, who was a disciple of the apostles, and 
next successor, after Evodius, of St. Peter in the See of Anti- 
och, addresses his most celebrated epistle to the church, which 
he says, "PRESIDES in the country of the Romans."* 
About the same time, dissensions taking place in the church of 
Corinth, the case was referred to the church of Rome, to which 
the Holy Pope Clement, whose name is written in the book of 
life, Philip, iv. 3, returned an*apostolical answer of exhortation 
and instruction.! 

In the second century, St. Irenaeus who had been instructed by 
St. Poly carp, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist, referring to 
the tradition of the apostles, preserved in the church of Rome calls 
it " the greatest, most ancient, and most universally known, as 
havingbeen founded by St. Peterand St. Paul ; to which (he says) 
every church is bound to conform, by reason of its superior 
authority."! Tertullian, a priest of the Roman church, who 
flourished near the same time, calls St. Peter, " the rock of the 
church," and says, that " the church was built upon him."$ 
Speaking of the bishop of Rome, he terms him in different 
places, " the blessed Pope, the high priest, the apostolic pre- 
late, &c." I must add, that, at this early period, Pope Victor 
exerted his superior authority, by threatening the bishops of 
Asia with excommunication for their irregularity in celebrating 
Easter, and the other moveable feasts, from which rigorous 
measure he was deterred, chiefly by St. Irenaeus. || In the third 
century, we hear Origen^ and St. Cyprian repeatedly affirm- 
ing, that the church was " founded on Peter," that he " fixed 
his chair at Rome," that this is " the mother church," and 
" the root of Catholicity."** The latter expresses great indig- 
nation that certain African schismatics should dare to approach 
" the See of Peter, the head church and source of ecclesiastical 
unity ."ff It is true, this father afterwards had a dispute with 
Pope Stephen, about rebaptizing converts from heresy • but this 
proves nothing more than that he did not think the Pope's au- 
thority superior to general tradition, which, through mistake, 
he supposed to be on his side. To what degree, however, he 

* Hp>KaOr]Tat, Epist. Ignat. Cotelero. t Coteler. 

t «* Ad hanc ecclesiam convenire necesse est omnem ecclesiam." Coh- 
ra HferiS 1. iii. c. 3. § Prescrip. 1. i c. 22. !)e onogam. 

II Kuseb Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c. 24. IT Horn. 5 in Exod Horn. 17 jn Luc 
** Ep ad Cornel. Ep ad Anton. De Unit. &c tt Ep. ad Cornel, 55 



304 



Letter XL VI. 



did admit this authority, appears by his advising this same 
Pope, to depose Marcian, a schismatical bishop of Gaul, and to 
appoint another bishop in his place.* At the beginning of the 
fourth century we have the learned Greek historian, Eusebius, 
explaining in clear terms, the ground of the Roman pontiff's 
claim to superior authority, which he derives from St. Peter ;f 
we have also the great champion of orthodoxy and the 
patriarch of the second See in the world, St. Athanasius, ap- 
pealing to the bishop of Rome, which See he terms " the mo- 
ther and the head of all other churches. "J In fact, the Pope 
reversed the sentence of deposition, pronounced by the saint's 
enemies, and restored him to his patriarchal chair.§ Soon 
after this, the council of Sardica confirmed the bishop of Rome, 
in his right of receiving appeals from all the churches in the 
world. || Even the Pagan historian, Ammianus, about the 
same time, bears testimony to the superior authority of the Ro- 
man Pontiff.^ In the same century, St. Basil, St. Hilary, 
St. Epiphanius, St. Ambrose, and other fathers and doctors, 
teach the same thing. Let it suffice to say, that the first named 
of these scruples not to advise, that the Pope should send visit- 
ers to the eastern churches, to correct the disorders, which the 
Arians had caused in them,** and that the last mentioned re- 
presents communion with the bishop of Rome, as communion 
with the Catholic church. ft I must add, that the great St. 
Chrysostom, having been, soon after, unjustly deposed from his 
seat in the Eastern Metropolis, was restored to it by the au- 
thority of Pope Innocent ; that Pope Leo termed his church 
" the head of the world, because its spiritual power, as he al- 
leged, extended farther than the temporal power of Rome had 
ever extended."^ Finally, the learned St. Jerom, being dis- 
tracted with the disputes among three parties, which divided the 
church of Antioch, to which church he was then subject, wrote 
for directions, on this head, to Pope Damasus, as follows : " I, 
who am but a sheep, apply to my shepherd for succour. I am 
united with your holiness, that is to say, with the chair of Peter, 
in communion. I know that the church is built upon that rock. 
He who eats the Paschal Lamb out of that house, is profane. 
Whoever is not in Noah's Ark will perish by the deluge. I 

* Ep. 29. t Euseb. Chron. An. 44. t Epist. ad Marc. 

§ Socrat. Hist. 1. ii. c. 2. Zozom. II Can. 3. 

IT Rerum Gest. 1. xv. ** Epist. 52. tt Orat. in Obit. Satyr. 

it Serm. de Nat Apos. This sentiment, another father of the church, in 
the following century, St Prosper, expressed in these lines: " Sedes Roma 
I etri, quae pastoralis honoris; Facta caput tnundo, quidquid non possidef 
*rmis; Religione tenet." 



Letter XLVL 303 

snow nothing of Vitalis, 1 reject Melitius, I am ignorant of Pau- 
linus : • he who does not gather with thee, scatters," &c* It 
were useless, after this, to cite the numerous testimonies to the 
Pope's supremacy, which St. Augustin, and all the fathers, doc 
tors, and church historians, and all the general councils bear, 
down to the present time. However, as the authority of our 
apostle, Pope Gregory the Great, is claimed by most Protestant 
divines on their side, and is alluded to by Bp.f Porteus, merely 
for having censured the pride of John, patriarch of C. P. in as- 
suming to himself the title of CEchutnenical or universal bishop ; 
it is proper to show, that this Pope, like all the others who went 
before him, and came after him, did claim and exercise the 
power of supreme pastor, throughout the church. Speaking of 
this very attempt of John, he says, " The care of the whole 
church was committed to Peter, and yet he is not called the uni- 
versal apostle. "J With respect to the See of C. P. he says, 
" Who doubts but it is subject to the apostolic See ;" and again, 
" When bishops commit a fault, I know not what bishop is not 
subject to it," [the See of Rome.)^ As no Pope was ever more 
vigilant, in discharging the duties of his exalted station, than St. 
Gregory, so none of them, perhaps, exercised more numerous or 
widely extended acts of the supremacy, than he did. It is suf- 
ficient to cite here Ms directions to St. Austin of Canterbury, 
whom he had sent into this island, for the conversion of our 
Saxon ancestors, and who had consulted him, by letter, how he 
was to act with respect to the French bishops, and the bishops 
of this island, namely, the British prelates in Wales, and the 
Pictish and Scotch in the northern parts. To this question 
Pope Gregory returns an answer in the following words : " We 
give you no jurisdiction over the bishops of Gaul, because, from 
ancient times, my predecessors have conferred the Pallium (the 
ensign of legatine authority) on the bishop of Aries, whom we 
ought not to deprive of the authority he has received. But we 
commit all the bishops of Britain to your care, that the ignorant 
among them may be instructed, the weak strengthened, and the 
perverse corrected by your authority."! After this is it possible 
to believe that Bp. Porteus and his fellow writers ever read 
Venerable Bede's History of the English nation? But if they 
could even succeed in proving that Christ had not built his 
church upon St. Peter and his successors, and had not given 
them the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; it would still remain 

* Ep. ad Damas. t P. ~8. t Ep. Greg. 1. v. 20. § L. ix. 59 

II Hist. Bed. 1. i. c. 27. Uesp. 9. Spelm. Concil. p. 98. 
26* 



306 



Letter XLVI. 



for them to prove, that he had founded any part of it on Henry 
VIII, Edward VI, and their successors, or that he had given the 
mystical keys to Elizabeth and her successors. I have shown, 
in a former letter, that these sovereigns exercised a more des- 
potic power over all the ecclesiastical and spiritual affairs of 
this realm, than any Pope ever did, even in the city of Rome, 
and that the changes in religion, which took place in their reigns, 
were effected by them and their agents, not by the bishops or 
any clergy whatever ; and yet no one will pretend to show from 
Scripture, tradition, or reason, that these princes had received 
any greater power from Christ over the doctrine and discipline 
of his church, than he conferred upon Tiberius, Pilate, or Herod, 
or than he has given at the present day, to the great Turk or the 
Lama of Thibet, in their respective dominions. 

Before I close this letter 1 think it right to state the senti- 
ments of a few eminent Protestants respecting the Pope's su- 
premacy- I have already mentioned, that Luther acknowledged 
it, and submissively bowed to it, during the three first years of 
his dogmatizing about justification ; and till his doctrine was 
condemned at Rome. In like manner, our Henry VIII. assert- 
ed it, and wrote a book in defence of it, in reward of which the 
Pope conferred upon him and his successors the new title of 
Defender of the Faith. Such was his doctrine ; till, becoming 
amorous of his queen's maid of honour, Ann Bullen, and finding 
the Pope conscientiously inflexible in refusing to grant him a 
divorce from the former, and to sanction an adulterous con- 
nexion with the latter, he set himself up, as supreme head of the 
church of England, and maintained his claim by the arguments 
of halters, knives, and axes. James I, in his first speech in par- 
liament, termed Rome " the mother church," and in his writ- 
ings allowed the Pope to be " The patriarch of the West." 
The late archbishop Wake, after all his bitter writings against 
the Pope and the Catholic church, coming to discuss the terms 
of a proposed union between this church and that of England, 
expressed himself willing to allow a eertain superiority to the 
Roman pontiff.* Bishop Bramhall had expressed the same 
sentiment,-} sensible as he was, that no peace or order could 
subsist in the Christian church, any more than in a political 
state, without a supreme authority. Of the truth of this maxim, 
two others, among the greatest men whom Protestantism has to 
boast of, the Lutheran Melancthon, and the Calvinist Hugo 

* " Suo Gaudeatqualieunque Primatu." See Maclain's Third Appendiy 
to Mosheirrvs Eccl. Hist. vol. v 
t Answer to Militiere. 



Letter XLV II. 



30? 



, f Grotius, were deeply persuaded. The former had written to 
\ prove the Pope to be Antichrist ; but seeing the animosities, 
the divisions, the errors, and the impieties of the pretended re- 
'. formers, with whom he was connected, and the utter impossi- 
! bility of putting a stop to these evils, without returning to the 
ancient system, he wrote thus to Francis I, of France : " We 
. acknowledge, iti the first place, that ecclesiastical government 
is a thing holy and salutary : namely, ^that there should be cer- 
, tain bishops to govern the pastors of several churches, and that 
I THE ROMAN PONTIFF should be above all the bishops 
For the church stands in need of governors, to examine and 
ordain those who are called to the ministry, and to watch over 
', their doctrine ; so that, if there were no bishops, they ought to 
be created."* The latter great man, Grotius, was learned, wise, 
and always consistent. In proof of this he wrote as follows, 
to the minister, Rivet : " All who are acquainted with Grotius, 
I know how earnestly he has wished to see Christians united to- 
j gether in one body. This he once thought might have been ac- 
complished by a union among Protestants, but afterwards, he 
saw that this is impossible. Because, not to mention the aversion 
of Galvinists to every sort *of union, Protestants are not bound 
i by any ecclesiastical government, so that they can neither be 
united at present, nor prevented from splitting into fresh divi- 
sions. Therefore Grotius now is fully convinced, *as many 
others are also, that Protestants never can be united among 
themselves, unless they join those who adhere to the Roman 
See ; without which there never can be any genera] church 
government. Hence he wishes that the revolt and the causes of 
it may be removed, among which causes, the primacy of the 
bishop of Rome was not one, as Melancthon confessed who also 
thought that primacy necessary to restore union."f 

1 am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XL VII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Jun. Esq. 

on the language of the liturgy and on reading the 
holy scriptures. 

Dear Sir, 

I agree with, your worthy father, that the departure of the 
Rev. Mr. Clayton, to a foreign country, is a loss to your Salopian 

* D'Argentre, Collect. Jud. t. i. p. 2. — Bercastel and Feller relate, that 
Melancthon's mother, who was a Catholic, having consulted him about her 
religion, he persuaded her to continue in it. t Apol. ad Rivet 



308 



Letter XLVI1. 



Society in more respects than one ; and as it is his wish that 
I should address the few remaining letters I have 'to write, in 
answer to bishop Porteus's book, to you, sir, who, it seems, 
agree with him in the main, but not altogether, on religious sub- 
jects, 1 shall do so, for your own satisfaction and that of your 
friends, who are still pleased to hear me upon them. Indeed 
the remaining controversies between that prelate and myself are 
of light moment, compared with those I have been treating of, 
as they consist chiefly of disciplinary matters, subject to the 
control of the church, or of particular facts misrepresented by 
his lordship. 

The first of these points of changeable discipline, which the 
bishop mentions, or rather declaims upon throughout a whole 
chapter, is the use of the Latin tongue in the public liturgy of 
the Latin church. It is natural enough that the church of 
England, which is of modern date, and confined to its own do- 
main, should adopt its own language, in its public worship : 
and, for a similar reason, it is proper that the great Western or 
Latin church, which was established by the apostles, when the 
Latin tongue was the vulgar tongue of Europe, and which still 
is the common language of educated persons in every part ol 
it, should retain this language in her public service. When the 
bishop complains of " our worship being performed in an un- 
known tongue"* and of our " wicked and cruel cunning in 
keeping people in darkness"^ by this means, under pretext that 
" they reverence what they do not understand/'^ he must be 
conscious of the irreligious calumnies he is uttering : knowing, 
as he does, that Latin is, perhaps, still the most general lan- 
guage of Christianity,^ and that, where it is not commonly 
understood, it is not the church which has introduced a foreign 
language among the people, but it is the people who have for- 
gotten their ancient language. So far removed is the Catholic 
church from " the wicked and cruel cunning of keeping people 
in ignorance," by retaining her original apostolical languages, 
the Latin and the Greek ; that she » strictly commands her pas- 
tors every where, " to inculcate the word of God, and the les- 
sons of salvation, to the people, in their vulgar tongue, every 
Sunday and festival throughout the year,"ll and " to explain 
to them the nature and meaning of her divine worship as fre* 

* P. 76. i P. 63. t P. 65. 

§ The Latin language is vernacular in Hungary and the neighbouring 
countries: it is taught in all the Catholic settlements T)f the universe, and it 
approaches so near to the Italian, Spanish, and French, as to be underaloodi 
in a general kind of way, by those who use these languages. 

U Concil. Trid. Seas xxiv. c. 7. 



Letter XLVIL 



309 



quently as possible."* In like manner, we are so far from 
imagining that the less our people understand of our liturgy 
the more they reverence it, that we are quite sure of precisely 
the contrary ; particularly with respect to our principal liturgy, 
the adorable sacrifice of the mass. True it is, that a part ot 
this is performed by the priest in silence, because, being a sa- 
cred action, as well as a form of words, some of the prayers 
which the priest says, would not be proper or rational in the 
mouths of the people. Thus, the high priest of old went alone 
into the tabernacle, to make the atonement ;f and thus Za- 
chary offered incense in the temple by himself ; while the mul- 
titude prayed without J But this is no detriment to the faith- 
ful, as they have translations of the liturgy, and other books in 
their hands, by means of which, or of their own devotion, they 
can join with the priest in every part of the solemn worship ; as 
the Jewish people united with their priests, in the sacrifices 
above-mentioned. 

But we are referred by his lordship to 1 Cor. xiv. in order 
" to see what St. Paul would have judged of the Romanists 
practice" in retaining the Latin liturgy, (which, after all, he 
himself and St. Peter established where it now prevails ;) I an- 
swer, that there is not a word in that chapter which mentions 
or alludes to the public liturgy, which at Corinth was, as it is 
still performed in the old Greek ; the whole of it regarding an 
imprudent and ostentatious use of the gift of tongues, in speak- 
ing ail kinds of languages, which gift many of the faithful pos- 
sessed, at that time, in common with the apostles. The very 
reason, alleged by St. Paul, for prohibiting extemporary pray- 
ers and exhortations, which no one understood, namely, that 
all things should be done decently and according to order, is the 
principal motive of the Catholic church, for retaining, in her 
worship, the original languages employed by the apostles. She 
is, as i before remarked, a universal church, spread over the 
face of the globe, and composed of all nations, and tribes, and 
tongues, Rev. vii. 9, and these tongues constantly changing ; 
so that instead of the uniformity of worship, as well as of faith, 
which is so necessary for that decency and order, there would be 
nothing but confusion, disputes, and changes in every part of 
her liturgy, if it were performed in so many different languages, 
and dialects ; with the constant danger of some alteration or 
other in the essential forms, which would vitiate the very sacra- 
ment and sacrifice. The advantage of an ancient language, 
for religious worship, over a modern one, in this and other re- 

* Idem. Sess. xxi. c. 8. t Levit. xvi. J 7 t Luke i. 10. 



310 



Letter XLV IT. 



spects, is acknowledged by the Cambridge professor of divinity, 
Dr. Hey. He says, that such a one " is fixed and venerable, 
free from vulgarity, and even more perspicuous."* But to re- 
turn to bishop Porteus's appeal to the judgment of St. Paul 
concerning " the Romanists practice" in retaining the lan 
guage with the substance of their primitive liturgy, I leave you, 
dear sir, and your friends, to pronounce upon it, after I shall 
have stated the following facts : 1st, that St. Paul himself wrote 
an Epistle, which forms part of the liturgy of all Christian 
churches, to these very Romanists, in the Greek language, 
though they themselves made use of the Latin :t 2dly, that the 
Jews, after they had exchanged their original Hebrew for the 
Chaldaic tongue, during the Babylonish ca^bvity, continued to 
perform their liturgy in the former language, though the vul- 
gar did not understand it,J and that our Saviour Christ, as well 
as his apostles, and other devout friends, attended this service 
in the temple, and the synagogue, without ever censuring it : 
3dly, that the Greek churches, in general, no less than the La- 
tin church, retain their original pure Greek tongue in their litur- 
gy, though the common people have forgotten it, and adopted 
different barbarous dialects instead of it 4thly, that patriarch 
Luther maintained, against Carlostad, that the language of pub- 
lic worship, was a matter of indifference : hence, his diciples 
professed, in their Ausburg Confession, to retain the Latin lan- 
guage in certain parts of their service : lastly, that when the 
establishment endeavoured, under Elizabeth, and afterwards, 
under Charles I. to force their liturgy upon the Irish Catholics, 
it was not thought necessary to translate it unto Irish, but it was 
constantly read in English, of which the natives did not under- 
stand a word : thus " furnishing the Papist with an excellent 
argument against themselves," as Dr. Heylin observes.! 

The bishop has next a long letter on what he calls, the pro- 
hibition of the Scriptures, by the Romanists, in which he con- 
fuses and disguises the subjects he treats of, to beguile and in- 
flame ignorant readers. I have treated this matter, at some 
length, in a former letter, and therefore shall be brief in what I 
write upon it in this : but what I do write shall be explicit and 
clear. It is a wicked calumny, then, that the Catholic church 
undervalues the Holy Scriptures, or prohibites the use of them 

* Lectures, vol. iv. p. 191. t St. Jerom, Epist. 123. 

t Walton's Polyglot Proleg. Hey, &c. 
§ iV'osheim, by Maclaine, vol. ii. p. 575. 

II Ward has successfully ridiculed this attempt in his England's Re/or- 
mation* Canto II. 



Letter XLT II. 



on the contrary, it is she that has religiously preserved them, 
as the inspired word of God, and his invaluable gift to man, 
during these eighteen centuries : it is she alone, that can and 
does vouch for their authenticity, their purity, and their inspi- 
ration. But, then, she knows that there is an unwritten word 
of God, called tradition, as well as a written word, the Scrip- 
tures ; that the former is the evidence for the authority of the 
latter, and that, when nations had been converted, and churches 
formed by the unwritten word, the authority of this was nowise 
abrogated by the inspired Epistles and Gospels, which the 
apostles and evangelists occasionally sent to such nations or 
churches. In short, both these words together form the Ca- 
tholic rule of faith. On the other hand, the church, consisting, 
according to its more general division, of two distinct classes, 
the pastors and their flocks, the preachers and their hearers, 
each has its particular duties in the point under consideration, 
as well as in other respects. The pastors are bound to study 
the rule of faith in both its parts, with unwearied application, 
to be enabled to acquit themselves of the flrst of all their duties, 
that of preaching the Gospel to their people.* Hence St. 
Ambrose calls the sacred Scripture the Sacerdotal Book, and 
the council of Cologne orders that it shonld "never be -out of 
the hands of ecclesiastics." In fact, the Catholic clergy 
must, and do employ no small portion of their time, every day, 
in reading different portions of Holy Writ. But no such obli- 
gation is generally incumbent on the flock, that is, on the laity ; 
it. is sufficient for them to hear the word of God from those 
whom God has appointed to announce and to explain it to 
them, whether by sermons, or catechisms, or other good books, 
or in the tribunal of penance. Thus, it is not the bounden duty 
of all good subjects to read and study the laws of their country : 
it is sufficient for them to hear and to submit to the decisions 
of the judges, and other legal officers, pronouncing upon them : 
and, by the same rule, the latter would be excusable if they 
did not make the . law and constitution their constant study, in 
order to decide right. Still, however, the Catholic church never 
did prohibit the reading of the Scriptures to the laity ; she only 
required, by way of preparation, for this most difficult and im- 
portant study, that they should have received so much education, 
as would enable them to read the sacred books in their original 
l«rguages, or in that ancient and venerable Latin version, the 
jfUflhy of which she guarantees to them : or, in case they were 
desirous of reading it in a modern tongue, that they should bo 



* Trid. Sess. v. cap. 2. Sess. xxv. cap. 4. 



S12 



Letter XLV II. 



furnished with some attestation of their piety and docility, m 
order to prevent their turning this salutary food of souls into * 
deadly poison, as, it is universally confessed, so many thou- 
sands constantly have done. At present, however, the chief 
pastors have every where relaxed these disciplinary rules, and 
vulgar translations of the whole Scripture are upon sale, and 
open to every one, in Italy itself, with the express approbation 
of the Roman pontiff. In these islands, we have an English 
version of the Bible, in folio, in quarto, and in octavo forms, 
against which our opponents have no other objection to make, 
except that it is too literal,* that, is, too faithful. But Dr. 
Porteus professes not to admit of any restriction whatever " on 
the reading of what heaven hath revealed, with respect to any 
part of mankind." No doubt, the revealed truths themselves are 
to be made known as much as possible, to all mankind ; but it 
does not follow from hence, that all mankind are to read the 
Scriptures : there are passages in them, which, I am confident, 
his lordship would not wish his daughters to peruse ; and which, 
in fact, were prohibited to the Jews, till they had attained the 
age of thirty. f Again, as Lord Clarendon, Mr. Grey, Dr. Hey, 
Sic. agree, that the misapplication of Scripture was the cause of 
the destruction of church and state, and of the murder of the 
king in the grand rebellion, and as he must be sensible, from his 
own observation, that the same cause exposed the nation to the 
same calamities in the Protestant riots of 1 7S0, I am confident 
the bishop, as a Christian, no less than as a British subject 
would have taken the Bible out of the hands of Hugh Peters, 
Oliver Cromwell, lord George Gordon, and their respective 
crews, if this had been in his power : I will affirm the same, 
with respect to count Emanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the 
modern sect of Jerusalemites, who taught, that no one bad 
understood the Scriptures, till the sense of them was revealed to 
him ; as also with respect to Joanna Southcote, foundress of a 
still more modern sect, and who, I believe, tormented the bishop 
himself with her rhapsodies, in order to persuade him, that she 
was the woman of Genesis, destined to crush the serpent's head, 
and the woman of the Revelations, clothed with the sun, and 
crowned with twelve stars. Nay, I greatly deceive myself if the 
prelate would not be glad to take away every hot-brained Dissen- 
ter's Bible, who employs it in persuading the people, that th€ 
church of England is a rag of Popery, and a spawn of the whore o 
Babylon. In short, whatever Dr. Porteus may choose to say c 

* See the bishop of Lincoln's Elements of Theol. vol. ii. p. 16. 
t St. Jerom in Proem Ezech. St. Greg. Naz. de Moderand Disp. 



Letter XLVIL 



313 



n unrestricted perusal and interpretation of the Scriptures, with 
respect to all sorts of persons, it is certain, that many of the 
wisest and most learned divines of his church have lamented 
this, as one of her greatest misfortunes. I will quote the words 
of one of them : " Aristarchus, of old, could hardly find seven 
wise men in all Greece : but, amongst us, it is difficult to find 
the same number of ignorant persons. They are all doctors and 
divinely inspired. There is not a fanatic or a mountebank, from 
the lowest class of the people, who does not vent his dreams for 
j the word of God. The bottomless pit seems to be opened, and 
there come out of it locusts with stings ; a swarm of sectaries 
and heretics, who have renewed all the heresies of former ages, 
and added to them numerous and monstrous errors of their own."* 
Since the above was written, the Bibliomania, or rage for the 
letter of the Bible, has been carried, in this country, to the ut- 
most possible length, by persons of almost every description, 
Christians and Infidels ; Trinitarians, who worship God in three 
persons, and Unitarians, who hold such worship to be idola- 
trous ; Paedobaptists who believe they became Christians by 
baptism \ Anabaptists, who plunge such Christians into the water, 
as mere Pagans ; and Quakers, who ridicule all baptism, except 
that of their own imagination ; Arminian Methodists, who be- 
lieve themselves to have been justified without repentance, and 
j Antinomian Methodists, who maintain, that they shall be saved 
without keeping the laws either of God or man ; Churchmen, 
who glory in having preserved the whole orders and part of the 
. missal and ritual of the Catholics ; and the countless sects of 
Dissenters, who join in condemning these things as Antichris- 
| tian Popery : all these have forgotten, for a time, their charac- 
| teristical tenets, and united in enforcing the reading of the Bible, 
■ I as the only thing necessary ! The Bible Societies are content, 
that all these contending religionists should affix whatever mean- 
\ ing they please to the Bible, provided only they read the text, of 
[ the Bible ? Nay, they are satisfied if they can but get the Hin- 
i doo worshippers of Juggernaut, the Thibet adorers of the Grand 
i, Lama, and the Taboo cannibals of the Pacific Ocean to do the 
i same thing, vainly fancying, that this lecture will reform the vi- 
n cious, reclaim the erroneous, and convert the Pagans. In the 
j mean time, the experience of fourteen years proves, that theft, 
ie forgery, robbery, murder, suicide, and other crimes go on in- 
c creasing with the most alarming rapidity ; that every sect clings 
c i to ita original errors, that not one Pagan is converted to Chris- 



' Walton's Polvglot Prolegom. 
27 



314 



Letter XLV III. 



tianity, nor one Irish Catholic persuaded to exchange his faith 
for a Bible Book. When will these Bible enthusiasts compre- 
hend, what learned and wise Christians of every age have 
known and taught, that the word of God consists not in the letter 
of Scripture, but in the meaning of it ! Hence it follows, that a 
Catholic child, who is grounded in his short but comprehensive 
First Catechism, so called, knows more of the revealed word of 
God, than a Methodist preacher does, who has read the whole 
Bible ten times over. The sentiment expressed above is not 
only that of St. Jerom* and other Catholic writers, but also of the 
learned Protestant bishop, whom I have already quoted. He 
says, " The word of God does not consist in mere letters, but 
in the sense of it, which no one can better interpret than the 
true church, to which Christ committed this sacred deposite."t 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XLVIII. 

To JAMES BROWN, Jun. Esq. 
on various misrepresentations. 

Dear Sir, 

The learned prelate, who is celebrated for having concen- 
trated the five sermons of his patron, archbishop Seeker, and 
ihe more diffusive declamation of primate Tillotson against 
Popery ; having gone through his regular charges on this to- 
pic, tries, in the end, to overyvhelm the Catholic cause, with an 
accumulation of petty, or, at least, secondary objections, in a 
chapter which he entitles : various corruptions and superstitions 
of the church of Rome. The first of these is, that Catholics 
" equal the apocryphal with the canonical books" of Scrip- 
ture :\ to which I answer, that the same authority, namely, the 
authority of the Catholic church, in the fifth century, which 
decided on the canonical character of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, the Revelations, and five other books of the New Testa- 
ment, on tHe character of which till that time, the Fathers and 
ecclesiastical writers were not agreed, decided also on the can- 
nonicity of the Books of Toby, Judith, and five other books of 
the Old Testament, being those which the prelate alludes to as 
apocryphal. If the church of the fifth century deserves to be 
heard in one part of her testimony, she evidently deserves to 
be heard in the other part. — His second objection is, that " The 
Romish church," as he calls the Catholic church, has made " a 

• Cap. 1 ad GaJat. t Walton's Proleg. X P. 70. 



Letter XLVII1. 315 



by Christ ; making also the priest's intention necessary to the 
benefit of them." I have, in the course of these letters, vindi- 
cated the divine institution of these five sacraments, and have 
shown, that they are acknowledged to be sacraments no less 
than the other two, by the Nestorian and Eutychian heretics, 
&c. who separated from the church almost 1400 years ago, and 
in short, by all the Christian congregations of the world, except 
a comparatively few modern ones, called Protestants, in the 
north of Europe. It is from ignorance, or wilful misrepresen- 
tation, that the bishop of London charges " the Romish church 
j with the modern addition of five new sacraments?" With re- 
spect to the intention of the minister of a sacrament, I presume 
: there is no sensible person who does not see the essential dif- 
ference there is between an action that is seriously performed, 
and the mimicking or mockery of it by a comedian or buffoon. 
Luther, indeed, wrote, that " the Devil himself would perform 
a true sacrament, if he used the right matter and form :" but I 
trust, that you, sir, and my other friends, will not subscribe to 
such an extravagance. I have also discussed the subjects of 
relics and miracles, which the prelate next brings forward ; so 
that it is not necessary for me to say any thing more about 
them, than that the church, instead of " venerating fictitious 
relics, and inventing lying miracles," as he most calumniously 
accuses her of doing, is strict to an excess, in examining the 
proofs of them both, as he would learn, if he took pains to in- 
quire. In short, there are but about two or three articles in his 
lordship's accumulated charges against his mother church, which 
seem to require a particular answer from me at present. One 
of these is the following : " Of the same bad tendency is their \ 
(the Catholics) engaging such multitudes of people in vows of I 
celibacy and useless retirement from the world, their obliging 
them to silly austerities and abstinences, of no real value, as 
matters of great merit."* In the first place, the church 
never engages any person whomsoever in a vow of celibacy ; on 
the contrary, she exerts her utmost power and severest censures, 
to prevent this obligation from being contracted rashly, or un- 
der any undue influence.] True it is, she teaches, that conti- 
nency is a state of greater perfection than matrimony ; but so 
does St. Paul| and Christ himself,^ in words too explicit and 
forcible to admit of controversy on the part of any sincere 
Christian. True it is, also, that having the choice of her sacred 



• P. 70. t Concil. Trid. Sess. xxv. De Reg cap. 15, 16, 17, 18. 

t See the whole chapter vii. ef 1 Cor. § Mat. xix 13. 



316 Letter XL VI II. 

ministers, she selects those for the service of her altar, and for 
assisting the faithful in their spiritual wants, who voluntarily 
/ embrace this more perfect state :* but so has the Establishment 
I expressed hex wish to do also, in that very act which allows her 
clergy to marry .f In like manner, I need go no further than 
the homily on fasting, or the " table of Vigils, fasts, and days 
of abstinence, to be observed in the year," prefixed to The Com- 
mon Prayer Book, to justify our doctrine and practice, which the 
bishop finds fault with, in the eyes of every consistent Church- 
Protestant. 1 believe the most severe austerities of our saints 
never surpassed those of Christ's precursor, whom he so much 
commended,^ clothed as he was with hair-cloth, and fed with 
the locusts of the desert. 

In a former letter to your society, I have replied to what the 
bishop here says concerning the deposing of kings by the Ro- 
man pontiff, and have established facts by which it appears, that 
more princes were actually dispossessed of the whole, or a 
large part, of their dominions, by the pretended gospel-liberty 
of the Reformation, within the first fifty years of this being pro- 
claimed, than the Popes had attempted to depose during the 
preceding fifteen hundred years of their supremacy. To this 
accusation another of a more alarming nature is tacked, that of 
our " annulling the most sacred promises and engagements, 
when made to the prejudice of the church."^ These are other 
words for the vile hackneyed calumny of our not keeping faith 
with heretiesP\ In refutation of this, I might appeal to the doc- 
trine of our Theologians,*!! and to the oath of the British Ca- 
tholics ; but I choose rather to appeal to historical facts, and to 
the practical lessons of the leading men by whom these have 
been conducted. I have mentioned, that when the Catholic 

* The second Council of Carthage, can. 3, and St. Epiphanius Haer. 48, 
59, trace the discipline of sacerdotal continence up to the Apostles. 

t " Although it were not only better for the estimation of priests and other 
ministers, to live chaste, sole, and separated from women, and the bond 
of marriage, but also they might thereby the better attend to the administra- 
tion of the Gospel; and it were to be wished that they would willingly en- 
deavour themselves to a life of chastity, &c." 2 Edw. vi. c. 21. See the 
injunction of queen Elizabeth against the admission of women into col- 
leges, cathedrals, &c. in Strype's Life of Parker See likewise a remark- 
able instance of her rudeness to that archbishop's wife. Ibid, and in Ni- 
cholas Pi ogresses, A. D. 1561. t J&at. xi. 9. § P. 71. 

II In the Protestant Charter-school Catechism, which is taught by au- 
thority, the following question and answer occur, p. 9. "Q How do Pa- 
pists treat those whom they call heretics % — A. I hey hold that faith is not 
to bi; kept with heretics, and that the Pope can absolve subjects from their 
oath of allegiance to their Sovereigns." 

IT See in particular the Jesuit Becanus De Fide Hatreticis prestanda. 



Letter XLVIIL 



317 



queen Mary came to the throne, a Protestant usurper, lady Jane, 
was set up against her, and that the bishops Cranmer, Ridley, 
Latimer, Hooper, Rogers, Poynet, Sandys, and every other Pro- 
testant of any note, broke their allegiance and engagements to 
her, for no other reason than because she was a Catholic, and 
the usurper a Protestant. On the other hand, when Mary was 
succeeded by her Protestant sister, Elizabeth, though the Catho- 
lics were then far more numerous and powerful than the Pro- 
testants, not a hand was raised, nor a seditious sermon preached 
against her. In the mean time, on the other side of the Tweed, 
where the new Gospellers had deposed their sovereign, and 
usurped her power, their apostle Knox, publicly preached, that 
" neither promise nor oath can oblige any man to obey or give 
assistance to tyrants against God ;"* to which lesson his col- 
league, Goodman, added : " If govenors fall from God, to the 
gallows with them."t A third fellow-labourer in the same Gos- 
pel cause, Buchanan, maintained, that " princes may be de- 

, posed by their people, if they be tyrants against God and his 
truth, and that their subjects are free from their oaths and 
obedience. "J The same, in substance, were the maxims of 
Calvin, Beza, and the Huguenots of France, in general : the 
temporal interest of their religion was the ruling principle of 

I their morality. But, to return to our own country : the ene- 
mies of church and state having hunted down the earl of Straf- 
ford, and procured him to be attainted of high treason, the 

i king, Charles I, declared that he could not, in conscience, concur 
to his death, when the case being referred to the archbishops, 
Usher, and Williams, and three other Anglican bishops, they 

I decided (in spite of his majesty's conscience, and his oath to 
administer justice in mercy) that he might, in conscience, send 

: this innocent peer to the block, which he did accordingly.^ I 
should like to ask bishop Porteus, whether this decision of his 

* In his book addressed to the nobles and people of Scotland. 
1 t De Obedient. 

1 t History of Scotland. — The same was the express doctrine of the Ge- 
neva Bible, translated by Coverdale, Goodman, &,c. in that city, and in 
common use among the English Protestants, till king James' reign: for in * 

'• a note on verse 12 of 2d Mat. these translators expressly say, " A promise 
ought not to be kept, where God's honour and preaching of his truth is in- 
jured." Hist. Account of Eng. Translations, by A. Johnson, in Watson's 
Collect, vol. iii. p. 93. 

§ Collier's Church History, vol. ii. p. 801. — On the other hand, when 
several of the Parliament's soldiers, who had beer taken prisoners at 
Brentford, had sworn never again to bear arms against the king, they were 

' "absolved from that oath," says Clarendon, " by their divines." Exam, of 

1 Neal'g Hist, by Grey, vol. iii'.. i. 10. IAO 



318 



Letter XLVIIl 



predecessors Was not the dispensation of an oath, and the an- 
nulling of the most sacred of all obligations ? In like manner, 
most of the leading men of the nation, with most of the clergy, 
having sworn to the Solemn League and Covenant, " for the 
more effectual extirpation of Popery," they were dispensed with 
from the keeping of it, by an express clause in the act of uni- 
formity.* But whereas, by a clause of the oath in the same 
act, all subjects of the realm, down to constables and school- 
masters, were obliged to swear, that " It is not lawful, upon 
any pretence whatsoever, to take up arms against the king ;" this 
oath, in its turn, was universally dispensed with, in the churches 
and in parliament, at the Revolution. I have mentioned these 
few facts and maxims concerning Protestant dispensations of 
oaths and engagements, in case any of your society may object, 
that some Popes have been too free in pronouncing such dispen- 
sations. Should this have been the case, they alone, personally, 
and not the Catholic church, were accountable for it, both to 
God and man. 

I have often wondered, in a particular manner, at the confi- 
dence with which bishop Porteus asserts and denies facts of an- 
cient Church History, in opposition to the known truth. An 
instance of this occurs in the conclusion of the chapter before 
me, where he says : " The primitive church did not attempt, 
for several hundreds of years, to make any doctrine necessary, 
which we do not : as the learned well know from their writ- 
ings."! The falsehood of this position must strike you, on look- 
ing back to the authorities adduced by me from the ancient 
fathers and historians, in proof of the several points of contro- 
versy which I have maintained : but, to render it still more glar- 
ing, I will recur to the historians of AERIUS and VIGILAN- 
TIUS, two different heretics of the fourth century. Both St. 
Epiphanius,^: and St. Austin, § rank Aerius among the heresi- 
archs, or founders of heresy, and both give exactly the same 
account of his three characteristical errors ; the first of which 
is avowed by all Protestants, namely, that " prayers and sacri- 
fices are not to be offered up for the dead," and the two others 
by most of them, namely, that " there is no obligation of observ- 
ing the appointed days of fasting, and that priests ought not to 
be distinguished, in any respect, from bishops. "|| So far were 
the primitive Christians from tolerating these heresies, that its 

* Statute 13 and 14 Car. II, cap.*4- t P> 73. t Haeresis 75. 

§ De Haeres. torn. vi. Ed. Frob. 

I! Ibid. St. John Pimascen and St. Isidore equally condemn these teneta 
as heretical, 



Letter XLIX. 319 

supporters were denied trie use of a place of worship, and were 
forced to perform it in forests and caverns.* Vigilantius like- 
wise condemned prayers for the dead, but he equally reprobated 
prayers to the saints, the honouring of their relics, and the ce- 
libacy of the clergy, together with vows of continence in gene- 
ral. Against these errors, which 1 need not tell you Dr. Por- 
teus now patronises, as Vigilantius formerly did, St. Jerom di- 
rects all the thunder of his eloquence, declaring them to be sac- 
rilegious, and the author of them to be a detestable heretic.f The 
learned Fleury observes, that the impious novelties of this here- 
tic made no proselytes, and therefore, that there was no need 
of a council to condemn them J Finally, to convince yourself, 
dear sir, how far the ancient fathers were from tolerating differ- 
ent communions or religious tenets in the Catholic church, con- 
formably to the prelate's monstrous system, of a Catholic church, 
composed of all the discordant and disunited sects in Christen- 
dom, be pleased to consult again the passages which I have col- 
lected from the works of the former, in my fourteenth letter to 
your society ; or, what is still more demonstrative, on this point, 
observe, in ecclesiastical history, how the Quartodecimans, the 
Novatians,§ the Donatists, and the Luciferians, though their res- 
pective errors are mere molehills, compared with the mountains, 
which separate the Protestant communions from ours, were held 
forth as heretics by the fathers, and treated as such by the 
church, in her councils. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

LETTER XLIX. 

To JAMES BROWN, Jun. Esq. 
on religious persecution'. 

Dear Sir, 

I promised to treat the subject of religious persecution apart, 
a subject of the utmost importance in itself, and which is spoken 
of by the bishop of London in the following terms : " They, the 
Romish church, zealously maintain their claim of punishing 

• Fleury's Hist, ad An. 392. 

1 Episr. 1 and 2, adversus Vigilan. t Ad An. 405. 

§ St. Cyprian being consulted about the nature of Novatian's errors, an- 
swers: t£ there is no need of a strict inquiry what errors he teaches while 
he teachei out of the church.'' He elsewhere writes: " The church being 
one, cannot be. at the same time, within and without. If she be with No- 
vatian, she is not with (Pope) Cornelius; if she be with Cornelius, Ncva- 
tian is not in her." Epist. 7b ad Mag. 



320 



Letter XLIX. 



whom they please to call heretics, with penalties, imprisonment, 
tortures, death."* Another writer, whom I have quoted above, 
says, that this church " breathes the very spirit of cruelty and 
murder ;"f indeed most Protestant controvertists seem to vie 
with each other in the vehemence and bitterness of the terms 
by which they endeavour to affix this most odious charge, of 
cruelty and murder, on the Catholic church. This is the fa- 
vourite topic of preachers, to excite the hatred of their hearers 
against their fellow Christians : this is the last resource of baf- 
fled oratorical hypocrites : if you admit the Papists, they cry, 
to equal rights, these wretches must and will certainly murder 
you, as soon as they can : the fourth Lateran council has estab- 
lished the principle, and the J)loody queen Mary has acted upon it. 

I. To proceed regularly in this matter : I begin with ex- 
pressly denying the bishop of London's charge ; namely, that 
the Catholic church " maintains a claim of punishing heretics 
with penalties, imprisonment, tortures, and death ;" and I assert, 
on the contrary, that she disclaims the power of so doing. Pope 
Leo the Great, who flourished in the fourth century, writing 
about the Manichean heretics, who, as he asserted, " laid all 
modesty aside, prohibiting the matrimonial connexion, and sub- 
verting all law, human and divine," says, that " the ecclesiastical 
lenity was content, even in this case, with the sacerdotal judg- 
ment, and avoided all sanguinary punishments,''^ however the 
secular emperors might inflict them for reasons of state. In the 
same century, two Spanish bishops, lthacius and Idacius, having 
interfered in the capital punishment of certain Priscillian here- 
tics, both St. Ambrose and St. Martin refused to hold commu- 
nion with them, even to gratify an emperor, whose clemency 
they were soliciting in behalf of certain clients. Long before 
their time, Tertullian had taught, that " It does not belong to 
religion to force religion and a considerable time after it, 
when St. Austin and his companions, the envoys of Pope Gre- 
gory the Great, had converted our king Ethelbert, to the Chris- 
tian faith, they particularly inculcated to him, not to use forci- 
ble means to induce any of his subjects to follow his example. || 
But what need of more authorities on this head, since our canon 
law, as it stood in ancient times, and as it still stands, renders 
all those who have actively concurred to the death or mutila- 
tion of any human being, whether Catholic or heretic, Jew 01 
Pagan, even in a just war, or by exercising the art of surgery 
or by judicial proceedings, irregular, that is to say, such per 

* P. 71. t De Coetlogon's Seasonable Caution, p. 15. 

t Epist. ad Turib. § Ad Scapul u Bed. Ecc. Hist. 1. i c. 26 



Letter XLIX. 



321 



sons cannot be promoted to holy orders, or exercise those 
orders, if they have actually received them. Nay, when an 
ecclesiastical judge or tribunal has, after due examination, pro- 
nounced that any person, accused of obstinate heresy, is actually 
- guilty of it, he is required by the church, expressly, to declare 
in her name, that her power extends no further than such de- 
cision ; and, in case the obstinate heretic is liable, by the laws 
of the state, to suffer death or mutilation, he is required to pray 
for his pardon. Even the council of Constance, in condemn- 
ing John Huss of heresy, declared that its power extended no 
further.* 

II. But, whereas many heresies are subversive of the esta- 
blished governments, the public peace, and natural morality, it 
does not belong to the church to prevent princes and states 
from exercising their just authority in repressing and punishing 
them, when this is judged to be the case ; nor would any cler- 
gyman incur irregularity by exhorting princes and magistrates 
to provide for those important objects, and the safety of the 

' church itself, by repressing its disturbers, provided he did not 
concur to the death or mutilation of any particular disturber. 

I Thus it appears, that though there have been persecuting laws 
in many Catholic states, the church itself, so far from claiming, 
actually disclaims the power of persecuting. 

III. But Dr. Porteus signifies,! that the church itself has 
j claimed this power in the third canon of the fourth Lateran 

council, A. D. 1215, by the tenour of which, temporal lords and 
| magistrates were required to exterminate all heretics from their 
j respective territories, under pain of these being confiscated to 
their sovereign prince, if they were laymen, and to their several 
churches, in case they were clergymen. From this canon, it 
has been, a hundred times over, argued against Catholics, of late 
years, not only that their church claims a right to exterminate 
heretics, but also requires those of her communion to aid and 
| assist in this work of destruction, at all times, and in all places. 
But it must first be observed, who were present at this council, 
and by whose authority these decrees, of a temporal nature, were 
passed. There were then present, besides the Pope and the 
■ bishops, either in person or by their embassadors, the Greek and 
the Latin emperors ; the kings of England, France, Hungary, the 
Sicilies, Arragon, Cyprus, and Jerusalem ; and the representa- 
tives of a vast many other principalities and states ; so that, in 
fact, this council was a congress of Christendom, temporal, as 
well as spiritual. We must, in the next place, remark the prin~ 

* Seas. xv. See Labbe's Concil. t xii. p. 1*20. t P. 47 



322 



Letter XLIX. 



cipal business, which drew them together. It was the common 
cause of Chrstianity and human nature ; namely, the extirpation 
of the Manichean heresy, which taught, that there were two 
first principles, or Deities ; one of them the creator of devils, 
of animal flesh, of wine, of the Old Testament, &c. ; the other, 
the author of good spirits, of the New Testament, &c ; that 
unnatural lusts were lawful, but not the propagation of the hu- 
man species ; that purjury was permitted to them, &c* This 
detestable heresy, which had caused so much wickedness and 
bloodshed in the preceding centuries, broke out with fresh fury, 
in the twelfth century, throughout different parts of Europe, 
more particularly in the neighbourhood of Albi, in Languedoc, 
were they were supported by the powerful counts of Tholouse, 
Comminges, Foix, and other feudatory princes ; as also by nu- 
merous bodies of banditti, called Rotarii, whom they hired for 
this purpose. Thus strengthened, they set their sovereigns at 
defiance, carrying fire and sword through their dominions, mur- 
dering their subjects, particularly the clergy, burning the 
churches and monasteries, and, in short, waging open war with 
them, and, at. the same time, with Christianity, morality, and hu- 
man nature itself ; casting the Bibles into the jakes, profaning 
the altar-plate, and practising their dstestable rites for the ex- 
tinction of the human species. It was to put an end to these 
horrors, that the great Laferan Council was held, in the year 
1215, when the heresy itself was condemned by the proper au- 
thority of the church, and the lands of the feudatory lords, who 
protected it, were declared to be forfeited to the sovereign 
princes, of whom they were held, by an authority derived from 
those sovereign princes. The decree of the council regarded 
only the prevailing heretics of that time, who, though " wearing 
different faces," being indifferently called Albigenses, Cathari, 
Poplicolae Paterini, Bulgari, Bacomilii, Beguini, Beguardi, and 
Brethern of the Free Spirit, &c. were " all tied together by the 
tails," as their council expresses it, like Sampson's foxes, in the 
same band of Manicheism.t Nor was this exterminating canon 
ever put in force against any other heretics except the Albigen- 
ses, nor even against them, except in the case of the above 
named counts ; it was never so much as published, or talked of, 
in these islands : so little have Protestants to fear from their 

* See the Protestant historian Mosheim's account of the shocking viola- 
tion of decency and other crimes of which the Albigenses, Brethren of 
the Free Spirit, &c, were guilty in the 13th century. Vol. iii. p. 284. 

i For a succinct, yet clear account of Manicheism, see Bossuet's Varia- 
tions, Book xi; also, for many additional circumstances relating to it, sea 
Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV. 



Letter XLIX. 323 

Catholic fellow-subjects, by reason of the third canon of the 
, council of Lateran.* 

IV. But they are chiefly the Smithfield fires of queen Mary's" 
reign, which furnish matter for the inexhaustible declamation 
of Protestant controvertists, and the unconquerable prejudices 
of the Protestant populace against the Catholic religion, as 
" breathing the very spirit of cruelty and murder," according 
to the expression of the above quoted orators. Nevertheless, 
1 have unanswerably demonstrated elsewhere,t that, " if queen 
Mary was/ a persecutor, it was not in virtue of the tenets of her 
religion that she persecuted." I observed, that during almost 
two years of her reign, no Protestant was molested on account 
of his religion; that in the instructions, which the Pope sent 
her for her conduct on the throne, there is not a word to re- 
commend persecution ; nor is there one word in the synod, 
which the Pope's legate, Cardinal Pole, held at that time, as 
Burnet remarks, in favour of persecution. This representative 
of his holiness even opposed the persecution project, with all 
his influence, as did king Philip's chaplain also, who even 
preached against it, and defied the advocates of it to produce 
an authority from Scripture in its favour. In a word, we have 
the arguments made use of in the queen's council, by those ad- 
vocates for persecution, Gardiner, Bonner, &c. by whose ad- 
vice it was adopted ; yet none of them pretended, that the doc- 
trine of the Catholic church required such a measure. On the 
contrary, all their arguments are grounded on motives of state 
policy. Indeed, it cannot be denied, that the first Protestants, 
in this, as in other countries, were possessed of, and actuated 
by a spirit of violence and rebellion. Lady Jane was set up, 
and supported in opposition to the daughters of king Henry, by 
all the chief men of the party, both churchmen and laymen, as 
I have observed. Mary had hardly forgiven this rebellion, 
when a fresh one was raised against her, by the duke of Suffolk, 
sir Thomas Wyat, and all the leading Protestants. In the 
mean time, her life was attempted by some of them, and her 
death was publicly prayed for by others ; while Knox and 
Goodman, on the other side of the Tweed, were publishing 
books Against the Monstrous regiment of Women, and exciting 

* For an account of the rebellions and antisocial doctrine and practices 
of the Wickliffites and Hussites, see the last quoted work, Letter IV; also 
History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 296. 

t Letters to a Prebendary, Letter IV, on persecution; alsc History of 
Winchester, vol. i. p. 354, &c See in the former, p 149, &c proofs of 
•.he infidelity oi the famous martyrologist, John Fox, and of the great abate, 
naents which are to be made in his account of the rrotestant sufferers. 



324 



Letter XL IX. 



the people of this country, as well as their own, to put their 
Jezabel to death. Still, 1 grant, persecution was not the way 
to diminish the number or the violence of the enthusiastic insur- 
gents. With toleration and prudence, on the part of the go- 
vernors, the paroxysm of the governed would quickly have sub- 
sided. 

V. Finally ; whatever may be said of the intolerance of 
Mary, 1 trust that this charge will not be brought against the 
next Catholic sovereign, James 11. I have elsewhere* shown, 
that, when duke of York, he used his best endeavours to get the 
act, De Heretico Comburendo, repealed, and to afford an asy- 
lum to the Protestant exiles, who flocked to England, from 
France, on the revocation of the edict of Nantz, and, in short, 
that, when king, he lost his crown in the cause of toleration : 
his Declaration of Liberty of Conscience, having been the deter- 
mining cause of his deposition. But what need of words to dis- 
prove the odious calumny, that Catholics " breathe the spirit 
of cruelty and murder," and are obliged, by their religion, to 
be persecutors, when every one of our gentry, who has made 
the tour of France, Italy, and Germany, has experienced the 
contrary ; and has been as cordially received by the Pope him- 
self, in his metropolis of Rome, where he is both prince and 
bishop, in the character of an English Protestant, as if he were 
known to be the most zealous Catholic ! — Still, I fear, there are 
some individuals in your society, as there are many other Pro- 
testants of my acquaintance elsewhere, who cling fast to this 
charge against Catholics, of persecution, as the last resource 
for their own intolerance ; and, it being true, that Catholics 
have, in some times and places, unsheathed the sword against 
the heterodox, these persons insist upon it, that it is an essential 
part of the Catholic religion to persecute. On the other hand, 
many Protestants, either from ignorance or policy, nowadays, 
claim for themselves, exclusively, the credit of toleration. As 
an instance of this, the bishop of Lincoln writes : " I consider 
toleration as a mark of the true church, and as a principle, re- 
commended by the most eminent of our reformers and divines. "t 
In these circumstances, I know but of one argument to stop the 
mouths of such disputants, which is to prove to them, that per 
secution has not only been more generally practised by Pro- 
testants than by Catholics, but also, that it has been more 
warmly defended and supported by the most eminent " Reform- 
ers and divines" of their party, than by their opponents. 

• History of Winchester, vol. i. p. 437, Letters to a Prebendary, p. 376 
t Charge in 1812. 



Letter XLIX. 



325 



L The learned Bergier defies Protestant* to mention so much 
as a town, in which their predecessors, on becoming masters of 
it, tolerated a single Catholic in it * Rousseau, who was edu- 
cated a Protestant, says, that " the Reformation was intolerant 
from its cradle, and its authors universally persecutors."! Bayle, 
who was a Calvinist, has published much the same thing. Fi- 
nally, the Huguenot minister, Jurieu, acknowledges, that " Ge- 
neva, Switzerland, the Republics, electors and princes of the 
empire, England, Scotland, Sweden, and Denmark, had all 
employed the power of the state to abolish Popery, and esta- 
blish the Reformation."! But to proceed to other more posi- 
tive proofs of what, has been said ; the first father of Protest- 
antism, finding his new religion, which he had submitted to the 
Pope, condemned by him, immediately sounded the trumpet of 
persecution and murder against the pontiff, and all his support- 
ers, in the following terms : " If we send thieves to the gallows, 
and robbers to the block, why do we not fall on those masters 
of perdition, the Popes, cardinals, and bishops, with all our 
force, and not give over till we have bathed our hands in their 
blood He elsewhere calls the Pope, " a mad wolf, against 
whom every one ought to take arms, without waiting for an 
order from the magistrate." He adds, " if you fall before the 
beast has received its mortal wound, you will have but one 
thing to be sorry for, that you did not bury your dagger in its 
breast. All that defend him must be treated like a band of 
robbers, be they kings or be they Caesars. "|| By these and simi- 
•ar incentives, with which the works of Luther abound, he not 
only excited the Lutherans themselves to propagate their reli- 
gion by fire and sword against the emperor and other Catholic 
princes, but also gave occasion to all the sanguinary and frantic 
scenes, which the Anabaptists played, at the same time, through 
the lower part of Germany. Coeval with these was the civil 
war, which another arch-reformer, Zuinglius, lighted up in 
Switzerland, by way of propagating his peculiar system, and 
the persecution which he raised equally against the Catholics 
and the Anabaptists. Even the moderate Melancthon wrote a 
book in defence of religious persecution, 1" and the conciliatory 
Bucer, who became professor of divinity at Cambridge, not 
satisfied with the burning of the heretic, Servetus, preached that 

* Trait. Hist, et Dogmat. t Letters de la Mont. 

X Tab. Lett, quoted by Bossuet, Avertiss, p. 625. 
§ Ad Silvest. Fereir. 

II Theses apud Sleid. A. D. 1545- Opera Luth. torn. i. 
^ Beza, De Haerct. puniend. 

2f§ 



326 



Letter XL1X. 



" his bowels ought to have been torn out, and his body chop- 
ped to pieces."* 

II. But the great champion oi persecution, every one knows 
was the founder of the second great branch of Protestantism, 
John Calvin. Not content with burning Servetus, beheading 
Gruet, and persecuting other distinguished Protestants, Castallo 
Bolsec, and Gentilis, (who being apprehended in the neigh- 
bouring Protestant canton of Berne, was put to death there) he 
set up a consistorial inqusition at Geneva, for forcing every 
one to conform to his opinions, and required, that the magis- 
trates should punish whomever this consistory condemned. He 
was succeeded in his spirit, as well as in his office, by Beza 
who wrote a folio work in defence of persecution^ In this he 
shows, that Luther, Melancthon, Bullinger, Capito, no less than 
Calvin, had written works, expressly in defence of this prin- 
ciple, which, accordingly, was firmly maintained by Calvin's 
followers, particularly in France. Bossuet refers to the public 
records, of Nismes, Montpelier and other places, in proof of the 
directions, issued by the Calvinist consistories to their generals, 
for " forcing the Papists to embrace the Reformation by taxes, 
quartering soldiers upon them, demolishing their houses, &c." 
and he says, " the wells into which the Catholics were flung, 
and the instruments of torture which were used at the first men- 
tioned city, to force them to attend the Protestant sermons, are 
things of public notoriety."}: In fact, who has not read of the 
infamous baron D'Adrets, whose savage sport it was, to torture 
and murder Catholics, in a Catholic kingdom, and who forced 
his son literally to wash his hands in their blood ? Who has 
not heard of the inhuman Jane, queen of Navarre, who massa- 
cred priests and religious persons, by hundreds, merely on ac- 
count of their sacred character 1 In short, Catholic France 
throughout its extent, and during a great number of years, was 
a scene of desolation and slaughter, from the unrelenting per- 
secution of its Huguenot subjects. Nor was the spectacle dis- 
similar in the Low Countries, when Calvinism got a footing in 
them. Their first synod, held in 1574, equally proscribed the 
Catholics and the Anabaptists, calling upon the magistrates to 
support their decrees, § which decrees were renewed in several 
subsequent synods. I have elsewhere quoted a late Protestant 
writer, who, on the authority of existing public records, de- 
scribes the horrible torments with which Vandermerk and Sonoi, 



* Ger. Brandt. Hist. Abre?. Refor. Pais Bas, vol. i. p. 454. 

t De Hyereticis puniendista Civili Magisfratu, &c. a Theod Beza- 

t Variat L x m. 52. § Brandt, vol- i. p. 227. 



Letter XLIX. 



327 



two generals of the prince of Orange, put to death incredible 
numbers of Dutch Catholics.* Other writers furnish more 
ample materials of the same kind.f But while the Calvinist 
ministers continued to stimulate their magistrates to reboubled 
severities against the Catholics, for which purpose, among other 
means, they translated into Dutch and published the above-men- 
tioned work of Beza, a new object of their persecution arose in 
the bosom of their own societjr ; Arminius, Vossius, Episcopius, 
and some other divines, supported by the illustrious statesmen, 
Barnevelt and Grotius, declared against the more rigorous of 
Calvin's maxims. They would not admit, that God decrees 
men to be wicked, and then punishes them everlastingly for 
what they cannot help ; nor that many persons are in his actual 
grace and favour, while they are immersed in the most enor- 
mous crimes. For denying this, Barnevelt was beheaded,! Gro- 
tius was condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and all the remon- 
strant clergy, as they were called, were banished, at the requsition 
of the synod of Dort, from their families and their country, with 
circumstances of the greatest cruelty. In speaking of Luther- 
anism, I have passed by many persecuting decrees and practices 
of its adherents against Calvinists and Zuinglians, and many 
more of Calvinists against Lutherans ; while both parties agreed 
in showing no mercy to the Anabaptists. Before I quit the 
continent, I must mention the Lutheran kingdoms of Denmark 
and Sweden, in both which, as Jurieau has signified above, the 
Catholic religion was extirpated, and Protestantism established 
by means of rigorous, persecuting laws, which denounced the 
punishment of death against the former. Professor Messenius, 
who wrote about the year 1600, mentions four Catholics who 
had recently been put to death, in Sweden, on account of their 
religion, and eight others who had been imprisoned and tortured 
on that account, of whom he himself was one.§ 

III. To pass over now, to the northern part of our own 
island : the first reformers of Scotland, having deliberately 
murdered Cardinal Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrew's,! and 
riotously destroyed the churches, monasteries, and every thing 
else, which they termed monuments of Popery, assembled in a 
tumultuous and illegal manner, and before even their own re- 

Q .... Jj»„ ..' ' '-"V.*'- „ 

* P. 283. Letters to a Prebend, p. 103. 

t See the learned Estius's History of the Martyrs of Gorcum; De 
Brandt, &c. 

i Diodati, qnoted by Brandt, says that the canons of Dort carried off the 
bead of Barnevelt. 

§ Scandia illustrat quot -d by Le Brun Mess. Explic. t. iv. p. 40. 
J| Gilb. Stuart's Hist of Ret' in Scot. vol. i p. 47, &c. 



328 



Letter XL IX. 



ligion was established by law, they condemned the Catholics 
to capital punishment for the exercise of theirs : " such stran- 
gers," says Robertson, "were men, at that time, to the spirit 
of toleration and the laws of humanity !"* Their chief apostle 
was John Knox, an apostate friar, who, in all his publications 
and sermons, maintained, that " it is not birth, but God's elec- 
tion, which confers a right to the throne and to magistracy :' 
that " no promise or oath, made to an enemy of the truth, that 
is to a Catholic, is binding ;" and that " every such enemy, in 
a high station, is to be deposed. "f Not content with threaten- 
ing to depose her, he told his queen, to her face, that the Pro- 
testants had a right to take the sword of justice into their hands 
and to punish her, as Samuel slew Agag, and as Elias slew 
Jezabel's prophets.J Conformably with this doctrine, he wrote 
into England, that " the nobility and people were bound in 
conscience, not only to withstand the proceedings of that Jeza- 
bel, Mary, whom they call queen, but also to put her to death, 
and all her priests with her."§ His fellow apostles, Goodman, 
Willox, Buchanan, Rough, Black, &c. constantly inculcated to 
the people the same seditious and persecuting doctrine ; and the 
Presbyterian ministers, in general, earnestly pressed for the 
execution of their innocent queen, who was accused of a mur- 
der, perpetrated by tjieir own Protestant leaders. || The samrj 
unrelenting intolerance was seen among " the most moderate" 
of their clergy, " when they were assembled by order of king 
James and his council, to inquire whether the Catholic earls of 
Huntly, Errol, and their followers, on making a proper con- 
cession, might not be admitted into the church, and be exempt 
from further punishment ?" These ministers then answered, 
that " Though the gates of mercy are always open for those 
who repent, yet, as these noblemen had been guilty of idolatry, 
(the Catholic religion) a crime deserving death by the laws 
both of God and man, the civil magistrate could not legally 
pardon them, and that, though the church should absolve them, 
it was his duty to inflict punishment upom them. "If But we 
need not be surprised at any severity of the Presbyterians 
against Catholics, when, among other penances, ordained by 
public authority, against their own members who should break 
the fast of Lent, whipping in the church was one.** 

* Hist, of Scotland, An. 1560 t See Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 442, 
t Stuart's Hist. vol. i. p. 59 

§ Cited by Dr. Paterson, in his Jerus. and Babel. 

II Stuart s Hist. vol. i. p. 255. IT Robertson's Hist. An. J 596 

•* Stuart, vol. ii. p. 94. 



Letter XL1X. 



329 



IV. The father of the Church of England, under the authori- 
ty of the protector Seymour, duke of Somerset, was confessedly 
Thomas Cranmer, whom Henry VIII. raised to the archbishop- 
ric of Canterbury ; of whom it is difficult to say, whether his 
obsequiousness to the passions of his successive masters, Henry, 
Seymour, and Dudley, or his barbarity to the sectaries who 
were in his power, was the more odious. There is this circum- 
stance, which distinguishes him from almost every other perse- 
cutor, that he actively promoted the capital punishment, not 
only of those who differed from him in religion, but also ol 
those who agrees with him in it It is admitted by his advo- 
cates,* that he was instrumental, during the reign of Henry, in 
bringing to the stake the Protestants, Lambert, Askew, Frith, 
and Allen, besides condemning a great many others to it, for 
denying the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament, which 
he disbelieved himself ;f and it is equally certain, that during 
the reign of the child Edward, he continued to convict Arians 
and Anabaptists capitally, and to press for their execution. 
Two of these, Joan Knell and George Van Par, he got actually 
burnt : preventing the young king, Edward, from pardoning 
them, by telling him, that " princes being God's deputies, ought 
to punish impieties against hiin."J The two next most eminent 
fathers of the English church were, unquestionably, bishop 
Ridley, and bishop Latimer, both of them noted persecutors, and 
persecutors of Protestants to the extremity of death, no less 
than of Anabaptists and other sectaries. § 

Upon the second establishment of the Protestant religion in 
England, when Elizabeth ascended the throne, it was again 
buttressed up here, as in every other country, where it prevail- 
ed, by the most severe, persecuting laws. I have elsewhere 
shown, from authentic sources, that above two hundred Ca- 
tholics were hanged, drawn and quartered during her reign, for 
the mere profession or exercise of the religion of their ancestors 
for almost one thousand years. Of this number fifteen were 
condemned for denying the queen's spiritual supremacy, one 
hundred and twenty-six for the exercise of their priestly func- 
tions, and the rest for being reconciled to the Catholic church, 
for hearing mass, or aiding and abetting Catholic priests. | 

• Fox, Acts and Monum. Fuller's Church Hist. b. v. 

t See Letters to a 1 reb. p. 206. t Burnet's Ch. Hist. p. ii. b. i. 

§ See the proofs of these facts collected from Fox, Burnet, Heylin, and 
Collier, in Letters to a Preb. Let. V. 

II Certain opponents of mine have publicly objected to me, that these 
Catholics suffered fo v high treason true; the laws of persecution declared 
28* 



330 Letter XLIX. 

When to these sanguinary scenes are added those of many hun 
dreds of other Catholics, who perished in dungeons, who were ! 
driven into exile, or who were stripped of their property, it will 
appear, that the persecution of Elizabeth's reign, was far more 1 
grievous than that of her sister Mary ; especially when the 
proper deductions are made from the sufferers under the latter.* 
Nor was persecution confined to the Catholics ; for, when great | 
numbers of foreign Anabaptists, and other sectaries, had fled 
into England, from the fires and gibbets of their Protestant 
brethren in Holland, they found their situation much worse 
here, as they complained, that it had been in their own coun- 
try. To silence these complaints, the bishop ^ London, Ed- 
win Sandys, published a book in vindication of religious perse- 
cution, i In short, the Protestant church and state concurred 
to their extirpation. An assembly of them, to the number of 
twenty-seven, having being seized upon in 1575, some of them 
were so intimidated as to recant their opinions, some were 
scourged, two of them, Peterspn and Terwort, were burnt to j 
death in Smithfield, and the rest banished J Besides these 
foreigners, the English Dissenters were also grievously perse- 
cuted. Several of them, such as Thacker, Copping ^ ^en- 
wood, Barrow, Penry, &c. were put to death, which rigours 
they ascribed principally to the bishops, particularly to Parker, ! 
Aylmer, Sandys, and Whitgift.§ The last named, they accused 1 
of being the chief author of the famous inquisitorial court 1 
called the Star Chamber, which court, in addition to all its 
other vexations and severities, employed the rack and torture, 
to extort confession.|| The doctrines and practice of persecu- 
tion, in England, did not end with the race of Tudor. James 
I, though he was reproached with being favourable to the Ca- 
tholics, nevertheless signed warrants for twenty-five of them 
to be hanged and quartered, and sent one hundred and twenty- 
eight of them into banishment, barely on account of their re- 
ligion, besides exacting the fine of 20/. per month from those 
who did not attend the church service. Still he was repeatedly 
called upon by parliament to put the penal laws in force with 
greater rigour ; in order, say they, " to advance the glory of . | 

I 

so: but their only treason consisted in their religion- Thus the Apostles, 
and other Christian martyrs, were traitors in the eye of the Pagan law; and 
the chief priests declared, with respect to Christ himself; we have a law j 
and according to that he ought to die. \ 

* See letters to a Prebendary, pp 149, 150. 

+ Ger. Brandt, Hist. Reform. Abreg. vol. i. p. 234. 

$ Brandt, vol. i. p 234. Hist, of Churches of Eng. and Scotl vol. ii. p f 
199. § Ibid. 'I Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 40. j 



Lstter XLIX. 



331 



Almighty God, and the everlasting honour of your majesty ;"* 
and he was warned by archbishop Abbot, against tolerating 
Catholics, in the following terms : " Your majesty hath pro- 
pounded a toleration of religion. By your act you labour to 
set up that most damnable and heretical doctrine of the church 
of Rome, the whore of Babylon ; and thereby draw down upon 
the kingdom and yourself God's heavy wrath and indigna- 
tion."t In the mean time the Puritans complained loudly of 
the persecution, which they endured from the court of High 
Commission, and particularly from archbishop Bancroft, and 
the bishops Neale, of Litchfield, and King, of London. They 
charged the former of these, with not only condemning Edward 
Wightman for his opinions, but also, with getting the king's 
warrant for his execution, who was accordingly burnt at Lich- 
field ; and the latter, with treating, in the same way, Bartholo- 
mew Legat, who was consumed in Smithfield.}: The same 
unrelenting spirit of pesecution prevailed in the addresses of 
parliament, and of many bishops to Charles I, which had dis- 
graced those presented to his father: one of these, signed by- 
the renowned archbishop Usher, and eleven other Irish bishops 
of the establishment, declares, that " to give toleration to Pa- 
pists, is to become accessary to superstition, idolatry, and the ■ 
perdition of souls ; and that, therefore, it is a grievous sin."§ 
At length the Presbyterians, and Independents, getting the up- 
per hand, had an opportunity of giving full scope to their 
characteristic intolerance. Their divines, being assembled at 
Sion college, condemned, as an error, the doctrine of tolera- 
tion, " under the abused term," as they expressed it, " of li- 
berty of conscience. "|| Conformably with this doctrine, they 
procured from their parliament a number of persecuting acts, 
from those of fining, up to those of capital punishment. The 
objects of them were not only Catholics, but also church of 
England men,1T Quakers, Seekers, and Arians. In the mean 
time, they frequently appointed national fasts to atone for their 
pretended guilt, in being too tolerant** Warrants for the exe- 
cution of four English Catholics, were extorted from the king, 
while he was in power, and near twenty others were publicly 
executed under the parliament and the protector. This hypo- 

* Rushworth's Collect, vol. . p. 141. i Rushworth's Collect. 

t Chandler's Introduct. to Limborche's Hist, of Inquis. p. 80. Neal's 
Hist, of Purit. vol. ii p. 96. 
§ Leland's Hist, of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 482. Neal's Hist. vol. ii. p. 469 
il Hist, of Churches of Eng. and Scotl. vol. iii. TT Ibid. 

I Ibid. Neal's Hist. 



332 



Letter XLIX. 



critical tyrant afterwards invading Ireland, and being bent on 
exterminating the Catholic population there, persuaded his 
soldiers, that they had a divine commission for this purpose, as 
the Israelites had to exterminate the Canaanites.* To make 
an end of the clergy, he put the same price upon a priest's as 
upon a wolfs head.f Those Puritans who, previously to the 
civil war, had sailed to North America, to avoid persecution, 
set up a far more cruel one there, particularly against the Qua- 
kers, whipping them, cropping their ears, boring their tongues 
with a hot iron, and hanging them. We have the names of 
four of these sufferers, one of them a woman, who were executed 
at Boston .| 

IV. The Catholics had behaved with unparalleled loyalty 
to the king and constitution, during the whole war which the 
Puritans waged against these. It has even been demonstrat- 
ed,^ that three-fifths of the noblemen and gentlemen who lost 
their lives on the side of royalty, were Catholics, and that more 
than half of the landed property, confiscated by the rebels, be- 
longed to the Catholics ; add to this, that they were chiefly in- 
strumental in saving Charles II, after his defeat at Worcester : 
hence there was reason to expect, that the restoration of the 
king and constitution, would have brought an alleviation, if not 
an end of their sufferings : but the contrary proved to be the 
case : for then all parties seem to have combined to make them 
the common object of their persecuting spirit and fury. In 
proof of this, I need allege nothing more than that two different 
parliaments voted the reality of Oates 's Plot ! and that eighteen 
innocent and loyal Catholics, one of them a peer, suffered the 
death of traitors, on account of it : to say nothing of seven 
other priests, who, about that time, were hanged and quartered 
for the mere exercise of their priestly functions. Among the 
absurdities of that sanguinary plot, such as those of shooting 
the king with silver bullets, and invading the island with an 
army of pilgrims from Compostella, &c.|| it was not the least 
to pretend, that the Catholics wished to kill the king at all ; 
that king whom they had heretofore saved in Staffordshire, and 
whom they well knew to be secretly devoted to their religion ; 
but any pretext was good which would serve the purposes of a 
persecuting faction. These purposes were to exclude Catholics 
not only from the throne, but also from the smallest degree of 
political power, down to that of a constable, and to shut the 

* Anderson's Royal Geneal. quoted by Curry, vol. ii. p. 11. 

t Ibid. p. 63. * Neal's Hist, of Churchei 

§ Lord Castleraain's Catholic Apology. I. Echard's Hist 



Letter XLIX. 



333 



doors of both houses *f parliament against ,zhem. The faction 
succeeded in its first design by the Test Act, and in its second, 
by the act requiring the Declaration against Popery ; both ob- 
tained at a period of national delirium and fury. What tho 
spirit of the clergy was, at that time, with respect to the op- 
pressed Catholics, appeared at their solemn procession at sir 
Edmundbury Godfrey's funeral,* and still appears in the three 
folio volumes of invective and misrepresentation then published, 
under the title of A Preservative against Popery. On the other 
hand, such was the unchristian hatred of the Dissenters against 
the Catholics, that they promoted the Test Act with all their 
power,f though no less injurious to themselves than to the Ca- 
tholics ; and on every occasion, they refused a toleration which 
might extend to the latter. \ There is no need of bringing 
down the history of persecution in this country to a later period 
than the revolution, at which time, as I observed before, a Ca- 
tholic king was deposed, because he would not be a persecutor. 
Suffice it to say, that the number of penal laws against the pro- 
fessors of the ancient religion, and founders of the constitution 
of this country, continued to increase in every reign, till that of 
his present majesty. In the course of this reign most of the 
old persecuting laws have been repealed, but the two last men- 
tioned, enacted in a moment of delirium, which Hume repre- 
sents as our greatest national disgrace, I mean the impractica- 
ble Test Act, and the unintelligible Declaration agamst Popery, 
are rigidly aJhered to under two groundless pretexts. The 
first of these is, that they are necessary for the support of the 
established church : and yet it is undeniable, that this church 
had maintained its ground, and had flourished much more dur- 
ing the period which preceded these laws, than it has ever 
done since that event. The second pretext is, that the with- 
holding of honours and emoluments is not persecution. On 
this point, let a Protestant dignitary of first rate talents be 
heard : " We agree, that persecution, merely for conscience 
sake, is against the genius of the gospel : and so is any law for 
depriving men of their natural and civil rights, which they 
claim as men. We are also ready to allow, that the smallest 
negative discouragements, for uniformity's sake, are so many 
pesecutions. An incapacity by law for any man to be made 
{ a judge or a colonel, merely on point of conscience, is a nega- 
tive discouragement, and, consequently, a real persecution," &c.§ 

i * North's Exam. Echard. 

1 NeaPs Hist, of Puritans, vol. iv. Hist, of Churches, vol. iii. 
t Ibid. § Dean Swift's works, vol. viii. p. 56. 



334 



Letter XLIX. 



In the present case, however, the persecution which Catholics 1 

suffer from the disabilities in question, does not consist so much ' 
iii their being deprived of those common privileges and advanta- \ 1 

ges, as iii their being held out by the legislature, as unworthy oj 1 

them, and thus being reduced to the condition of an inferior cast, 1 

in their own country, the country of freedom ; this they deeply s 
feel, and cannot help feeling. 

V. But to return to my subject : I presume, that if the facts ( 

and reflections, which I have stated in this letter, had occurred f 

to the R. Rev. prelates, mentioned at the beginning of it, they c 

would have lowered, if not quite altered, their tone on. the pre- 1 

sent subject : the bishop of London would not have charged ' 

Catholics with claiming a right to punish those whom they call I 

heretics, " with penalties, imprisonment, tortures, and death :" 1 

nor would the bishop of Lincoln have laid down r« toleration f 

as a mark of the true church, and as a principle, recommended « 

by the most eminent reformers and (Protestant) divines." At I 
all events, I promise myself, that a due consideration of the 

points here suggested, will efface the remaining prejudices of " 

certain perso»s of your society against the Catholic church, on fi 

the score of her alleged " spirit of persecution, and of her sup- t> 

posed claim to punish the errors of the mind with fire and ti 

sword." They must have seen, that she does not claim, but U 
that, in her very general councils, she has disclaimed all power ; h 

of this nature ; and that, in pronouncing those to be obstinate I 

heretics, whom she finds to be such, she always pleads for li 

mercy, in their behalf, when they are liable to severe punish- ji 

ment from the secular power : a conduct which many eminent y 

Protestant Churchmen, were far from imitating, in similar cir- ci 

cumstances They must have seen, moreover, that, J perse- li 

cuting laws have been made and acted upon by the princes and st 

magistrates in many Catholic countries, the same conduct has iii 

been uniformly practised in every country, from the Alps to fu 

the Arctic Circle, in which Protestants, of any description, ri 

have acquired the power of so doing. But, if, after all, the C 

friends alluded to, should not admit of any material difference, b< 

on one side or the other, in this matter, I will here point out m 
to them two discriminating circumstances of such weight, as ! m 
must, at once, decide the question about persecution in disfa- 
vour of Protestants. 

In the first place, when Catholic states and princes have per- 
secuted Protestants, it was done in favour of an ancient religion, 
which had been established in their country, perhaps, a thou- 
sand or fifteen hundred years, and which had long preserved 



Letter XLIX 



335 



the peace, order, and morality of their respective subjects ; and 
when, at the same time, they clearly saw, that any attempt to 
alter this religion would, unavoidably, produced incalculable dis- 
orders, and sanguinary contests among them. On the other 
hand, Protestants, every where, persecuted in behalf of new 
systems, in opposition to the established laws of the church, and 
of the respective states. Not content with vindicating their 
own freedom of worship, they endeavoured, in each country, by 
persecution, to force the professors of the old religion to aban- 
don it and adopt theirs ; and they acted in the same way by 
their fellow Protestants, who had adopted opinions different 
from their own. In many countries, where Calvinism got a 
head, as in Scotland, in Holland, at Geneva, and in France, 
they were riotous mobs, which, under the direction of their 
pastors, rose in rebellion against their lawful princes, and hav- 
ing secured their independence, proceeded to sanguinary ex- 
tremities against, the Catholics. 

In the second place, If Catholic states and princes have en- 
forced submission to their church by persecution, they were 
fully persuaded, that there is a divine authority in this church 
to decide in all controversies of religion, and that those Chris- 
tians who refuse to hear her voice, when she pronounces upon 
them, are obstinate heretics. But on what ground can Pro- 
testants persecute Christians of any description whatsoever? 
Their grand rule and fundamental charter is, that the Scripp, 
tures were given by God for every man to interpret them, as he 
judges best. If, therefore, when I hear Christ declaring, Take 
ye and eat, this is my body, I believe what he says ; with what 
consistency xan any Protestants require me, by pains or penal- 
ties, to swear that I do not believe it, and that to act conform- 
ably with this persuasion is idolatry ? But religious persecu- 
tion, which is every where odious, will not much longer find re- 
fuge in the most generous of nations : much less will the many 
victorious arguments which demonstrate the true church of 
Christ, our common mother, who reclaimed us all from the 
barbarous rites of Paganism, be defeated by the calumnious 
outcry, that she herself is a bloody Moloch, that requires hu- 
man vicrirns. 

I am, &c. J. M 



336 



LETTER L. 

To the FRIENDLY SOCIETY of NE W COTTAGE. 

CONCLUSION. 
MI FRIENDS AND BRETHREN IN CHRIST, 

Having, at length, finished the task you imposed upon me, 
eight months ago, in my several letters to your worthy presi- 
dent, Mr. Brown, and others of your society, I address this, my 
concluding letter, to you, in common, as a slight review of 
them. I observed to you, that, to succeed in any inquiry, it is 
necessary to know and to follow the right method of making 
it: hence, I entered upon the present important search after the 
truths of the Christian Revelation, with a discussion of the 
rules or methods, followed, for this purpose, by different classes 
of Christians. Having, then, taken for granted the following 
maxims, — that Christ has appointed some rule or method of 
learning his revelation ; that this rule must-be an unerring one ; 
and that it must be adapted to the capacities and situations of 
mankind, in general ; I proceeded to show, that a supposed pri- 
vate spirit, or particular inspiration, is not that rule ; because 
this persuasion has led numberless fanatics, in every age, since 
that of Christ, into the depths of error, folly, and wickedness of 
every kind. I proved, in the second place, that the written 
W ord or Scripture, according to each one's conception of its 
meaning, is not that rule ; because it is not adopted to the ca- 
pacity and situation of the bulk of mankind ; a great propor- 
tion of them not being able to read the Scripture-, and much 
less to form a connected sense of a single chapter of it ; and, 
because innumerable Christians, at all times, by following this 
presumptuous method, have given into heresies, impieties, con- 
tradictions, and crimes, almost as numerous and flagrant as 
those of the above mentioned fanatics. Finally, I demonstra- 
ted, that there is a two-fold word of God, the unwritten, and 
the written ; that the former was appointed by Christ, and 
made use of by the apostles, for converting nations ; and that 
it was not made void by the inspired Epistles and Gospels, 
which some of the apostles, and the evangelists, addressed, for 
the most part, to particular churches or individuals ; that the 
Catholic church is the divinely commissioned guardian and in- 
terpreter of the word of God, in both its parts ; and that, 
therefore, the method, appointed by Christ for learning what 
he has taught, on the various articles of his religion, is to 



Letter L. 



33? 



HEAR THE CHURCH propounding Jiem to us from the 
whole of his rule. This method, I have shown, continued to 
be pointed out by the fathers and doctors of the church, in con 
stant succession, and that it is the only one which is adapted 
to the circumstances of mankind, in general ; the only one, 
which leads to the peace and unity of the Christian church; 
and the only one, which affords tranquility and security to in- 
dividual Christians during life, and at the trying hour of their 
dissolution. 

At this point, my labours might have ended; as the Catholic 
church alone follows the right rule, and the right rule infallibly 
leads to the Catholic church : but since bishop Porteus, and 
other Protestant controvertists, raise cavils, as to which is the 
true church ; and whereas this is a question, that admits of a 
still more, easy and more triumphant answer, than that concern- 
ing the right rule of faith, I have made this the subject of a 
second series of letters, with which, I flatter myself, the greater 
part of you are unacquainted. In fact, no inquiry is so easy, to 
an attentive and upright Christian, as to discover which is the 

, true church of Christ; because, on one hand, all Christians 
agree, in their common creeds, concerning the characters or 
marks, which she bears ; and because, on the other hand, these 

1 marks are of an exterior and splendid kind, such as require no 

.; extensive learning or abilities, and little more than the use of 
our senses and common reason, to discern them. In short, to 
ascertain which, among the numerous and jarring societies of 

| Christians, all pretending to have found out the truths of Re- 
velation, is the true church of Christ, that necessarily possesses 
them, we have only to observe which among them is distinctive- 
ly, ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLICAL, and 

! the discovery is made. In treating of these characters, or 
marks, I said it was obvious to every beholder, that there is nc 
bond of union whatever among the different societies of Protest- 
ants ; and that no articles, canons, oaths, or laws, had the force 
of confining the members of any one of them, as experience 
shows, to a uniformity of belief, or even profession, in a single 
kingdom or island ; while the great Catholic church, spread 
as it is over the face of the globe, and consisting, as it does, of 
all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, is strictly unit- 
ed together, in the same faith, the same sacraments, and the 
same church-government ; in short, that it demonstratively ex- 
hibits the first mark of the true church, unity. — With respect to 
the second mark, sanctity, I showed, that she, alone, teaches and 
enforces the whole doctrine of the gospel ; that she is the mother 



938 



Letter. L. 



of all the saints, acknowledged as such by Protestants them 
selves ; that she possesses many means of attaining sanctity, 
which the latter disclaim ; and that God himself attests the 
truth of this church, by the miracles with which, from time to 
time, he illustrates her exclusively : and, whereas many eminent 
Protestant writers have charged the Catholics with deception 
and forgery on this head, I have unanswerably retorted the 
charge upon themselves. No words were wanting to show 
that the Catholic church bears the glorious name of CATHO- 
LIC, and very few to demonstrate, that she is Catholic or uni- 
versal, with respect both to place and time, and that she is also 
apostolical. The latter point, however, I exhibited in a more 
evident and sensible manner, by means of the sketch of an 
apostolical tree, or genealogical table of the church, which I- 
sent you ; showing the succession of her pontiffs, her most emi- 
nent bishops, doctors and saints, as also, of the most notorious 
heretics and schismatics, who have been lopped off from this 
tree, in every age from that of the apostles down to the present 
age. " No church, but the Catholic, can exhibit any thing of 
this kind," as Tertullian reproached the seceders of his time. 
Under this head, you must have observed, in particular, the 
want of an apostolical succession of ministry, which, I showed, 
all Protestant societies labour under, and their want of success 
in attempting the work of the apostles, the conversion of Pagan 
nations. 

The third series of my letters has been employed in tearing 
off the hideous mask, with which calumny and misrepresentation 
had disfigured the fair face of Christ's true spouse, the Catho- 
lic church. In this endeavour, I trust, I have been successful, 
and that there is not one of your society who will any more re- 
proach Catholics with being Idolaters, on account of their re- 
spect for the memorials of Christ and his saints, or of their de- 
siring the prayers of the latter ; or on account of the adoration 
they pay to the divine Jesus, hidden behind the Sacramental 
veils : nor will they, hereafter, accuse us of purchasing, or 
otherwise procuring leave to commit sin, or the previous par- 
don of sins, to be committed ; or, in short, of perfidy, sedition, 
cruelty, or systematic wickedness of any kind. So far from 
this, I have reason to hope, that the view of the church, herself 
which I have exhibited to your society, instead of the carica- 
ture of her, which Dr. Porteus, and other bigoted controvertists 
have held up to the puolic, has produced a desire in several of 
them to return to the communion of this original church ; bear- 
ing as she clearly does, all the marks of the true church 



Letter L. 



339 



gifted, as she manifestly is, with so many helps for salvation ; 
and possessing the only safe and practicable rule for ascertain 
<ng the truths of Revelation. The consideration which, I un- 
derstand, has struck some of them, in the most forcible manner, 
is that which I suggested from my own knowledge and experi- 
ence, as well as from the observation of the eminent writers 
whom I named ; namely, that no Catholic, at the near approach 
of death, is ever found desirous of dying in any other religion, 
while numbers of Protestants, in that situation, seek to be recon- 
ciled to the Catholic religion. 

Some of your number have said, that, though they are of 
opinion that the Catholic religion is the true one, yet they have 
not that evidence of the fact, which they think sufficient to jus- 
tify a change in so important a point as that of religion. — God 
forbid that I should advise any person to embrace the Catholic 
religion, without having sufficient evidence of its truth : but I 
must remind the persons in question, that they have not a meta- 
physical evidence, or a mathematical certainty of the truth of 
Christianity, in general ; they have only a moral evidence, and 
certainty of it : with all the miracles and other arguments, by 
which Christ and his apostles proved this divine system, it was 
still a stumbling block to the Jews, and folly to the Gentiles, 1 
Cor. i. 23 : in short,, there is light enough in it to guide the 
sincere faithful, and obscurity enough to mislead the perverse 
unbelievers, according to the observation of St. Austin; be- 
cause, after all, faith is not merely, a divine illustration of the 
understanding, bift also, a divine, and yet voluntary motion of 
the will. Hence, if, in travelling through this darksome vale, 
as Locke, I think, observes with respect to Revelation in gene- 
ral, God is pleased- to give us the light of the moon or of the 
stars, we are not to stand still on our journey, because he does 
not afford us the light of the sun. The same is to be said, with 
respect to the evidence in favour of the Catholic religion : it is 
moral evidence of the first quality ; far superior to that on which 
we manage our temporal affairs and guard our lives ; and not, 
in the least, below that which exists for the truth of Christianity 
at large. — At all events, it is wise to choose the safer part : and 
it would be madness to act otherwise, when eternity is at stake. 
The great advocates of Christianity, SS. Austin, Pascal, Ab- 
badie, and others, argue thus, in recommending it to us, in pre- 
ference to infidelity : now, the same argument evidently holds 
good, for preferring the Catholic religion to every Protestant 
system. The most eminent Protestant divines, such as Luther, 
Melanctbon. Hooker, Chillingworth, with the bishops, Laud, 



340 



Letter L. 



Taylor, Sheldon, Blanford, and the modern prelates, Marsh 
and Porteus himself, all acknowledge, that salvation may be 
found in the communion of the original Catholic church : but no 
divine of this church, consistently with her characteristical unity, 
and the constant doctrine of the holy fathers and of the Scrip- 
ture itself, as 1 have elsewhere demonstated, can allow, that sal- 
vation is to be found out of that communion ; except in the case 
of invincible ignorance. 

It remains, my dear friends and brethren, for each of you to 
take his and her part : but remember, that the part you severally 
take, is taken for eternity ! On this occasion, therefore, if ever 
you ought to do so, reflect and decide seriously and conscien- 
tiously, dismissing all worldly respects, of whatever kind, from 
your minds ; for what exchange shall a man receive for his soul !* 
and what will the prejudiced opinion of your fellow mortals avail 
you at the tribunal, where we are all so soon to appear ! and in 
the vast abyss of eternity in which we shall quickly be all in- 
gulfed ! Will any of them plead your cause at that bar ? And 
will your punishment be more tolerable front their sharing in it ? 
Finally, beseech your future judge, who is now your merciful 
Saviour, with all the fervour and sincerity of your souls, to be- 
stow upon you the light to see your way, and the strength to 
follow it, which he merited for you, when he hung, for three 
hours, your agonizing victim, on the cross. 

Adieu, my dear friends and brethren, we shall soon meet to- 
gether at the tribunal I have mentioned; an^be assured, that 
I look forward to that meeting with a perfect confidence, that 
you and I, and the Great Judge himself, will then approve, in 
common, of the advice I now give you. 

I am, &c. J. M. 

W — May 39, 1802. 



• Mat xvi. §Q 



POSTSCRIPT 

TO THE SECOND EDITION OP THE 

ADDRESS 

TO THE 

RIGHT REV. LORD BISHOP OF ST. DAVID'S, 

OCCASIONED BY HIS LORDSHIP'S 

« ONE WORD TO THE REV. DR. MILNER.' 



My Lord, 

Should a grave and dignified author be found unsettled in 
his opinions, and contradictory in his assertions, he would un- 
avoidably puzzle his readers to make out his meaning, and dis- 
tress his literary opponents to preserve a due respect towards 
him ; but much more so, should such a venerable character de- 
scend to the regions of burlesque and of ridiculous absurdity. 

In the course of last summer, the Right Reverend Bishop of 
St. David's published, what he called, THE PROTEST 
ANT'S CATECHISM, a work professedly intended, not only 
to defeat the claims of them Catholics to more extensive reli- 
gious and civil freedom, but also to deprive them of that por- 
tion of it which they actually enjoy. Among the other articles, 
announced in The Table of Contents, at the head of this work, 
is the following : * Section the 24th : Means of co-operating 
with the laws for preventing the danger and increase of Po- 
pery.' — From this and other passages in his Lordship's work, 
we had too much reason to fear, that he was disposed to vote 
for and promote, to the utmost of his power, the re-enactment 
of Elizabeth's sanguinary Statutes against us : which fear was 
augmented by his twice quoting the following awful words from 
Milton's prose works : ' Popery, as being idolatrous, is not to 
be tolerated, either in public or in private; it must now be 
thought how to remove it, and hinder the growth thereof. If 
they say that, by removing their idols, we violate their con- 
sciences, we have no warrant to regard conscience, which is not 
grounded on Scripture.' The adoption of these intolerant sen- 
timents by a Lord of Parliament naturally alarmed us, not 



342 



Postscript. 



barely for our own lives, that is to say, for those of five millions 
of his Majesty's European subjects, who, though they are not 
idolaters, yet pass for such in his Lordship's eyes, but also for 
the lives of fifty more millions of his Majesty's subjects in Asia, 
Africa and America, who are, in the strict sense of the word, 
idolaters. Accordingly, when 1 had read the Contents of the 
Catechism, I hastily turned over the leaves of it to page 54, 
where these Contents had informed me I should find the means 
in question, that is to say, the precise nature and extent of the 
religious persecution with which the Bishop of St. David's 
threatens us. But instead of finding these, 1 met the following 
note : ' The means of co-operating with the laws for preventing 
the danger and increase of Popery, intended for the Conclusion, 
as noticed in The Table of Contents, being intimately connected 
with the credit and usefulness of our Ecclesiastical establishment, 
as I conceive, but admitting a difference of opinion, are omitted 
for further consideration/ Now, my. Lord, I appeal to your 
Lordship's knowledge of literature, whether another author can 
be named, who in the same work exhibits such ah opposition of 
sentiment and language, as this Prelate does in his Catechism 1 
In a word, can either his readers or his critics pay any serious 
attention to what he writes, when it is evident that he has not 
made up his mind, and contradicts himself concerning it ? 

Soon after the appearance of this Catechism, its Right Rev, 
Author advertised,~ at the head of the Gentleman's Magazine, a 
new work, as being then actually in the press, under the title of 
THE GRAND SCHISM. Being then engaged in answering 
the Catechism, I own, I hailed this promise of fresh paradoxes, 
to support those which I was refuting; for I was perfectly 
aware that the farther his Lordship advanced in the thorny and 
miry lane, in which he was resolved to walk, the more he would 
get entangled in contradictions, and the deeper he would sink 
into absurdity. Accordingly, month after month, 1 inquired 
of all his publishers for The Bishop of St. David's GRAND 
SCHISM : but none of them had heard a word about it. In 
the end, it appeared that his Lordship had changed his mind 
about this publication also : but, whether * for the credit and 
usefulness of the Establishment,' or his own, he best knows. 
Hitherto the Prelate had not, to my knowledge, taken any public 
notice of my End to Controversy, or of my Address to him, at 
the beginning of it but, meeting soon after with The Protest- 
ant Advocate's Retrospect for October, 1 found them both men- 
tioned by his lordship, or by some one else, who professed to 
know his mind, and who was evidently imbued with his bigot- 



Postscript. 



343 



ed notions, in the following manner. Speaking of this chef 
(Vozuvre, as the Prelate or his intimate friend sarcastically calls 
the present work, he says : ' The address is made to the Bishop 
of St. David's in a style of peculiar acrimony and insolence, 
assuredly intended to prevent that most estimable and learned 
Prelate from descending to notice such an arrogant writer. 
Then he will cry Victory, and his partizans will re-echo the 
exclamation, and will attribute to their arguments what is due 
only to their insolence.' Now, my Lord, as I know that this is 
not the general character of my publication, and, otherwise, as 
1 feel that no language can be too strong in arguing with any 
man who himself has the insolence to tell me that I am a traitor 
and an idolater, when I know and have demonstrated the con- 
trary, I consider the passage I have quoted, as an apology for 
the prelate's declining to meet me in the field of argument ; and 
such I believe to have been his intention, till very lately, when 
he again changed his mind, and put forth his THREE WORDS 
ON GENERAL THORNTON'S SPEECH, AND ONE 
WORD ON DOCTOR MILNER'S END OF CONTRO- 
VERSY : which work itself betrays the greatest unsteadiness 
and inconsistency in its author. In fact, THE THREE WORDS 
take up nine octavo pages, and the ONE WORD fourteen ! It 
is true, the Prelate excuses himself for ' expanding,' as he calls 
it, his ONE WORD: but could he not, while the manuscript 
was in his possession, have made his title accord with his work ; 
as, in a former instance, he might have made his Table of Con- 
tents agree with the Sections of his Catechism ! 

But, after*all, such instances of fickleness, are not calculated 
to raise more than a smile at any grave and venerable charac- 
ter, who might exhibit them ; but, should such a character, 
with a mitre on his head, and a Catechism in his hand, begin 
an Episcopal lecture with the travesty or burlesque of an im- 
moral sentiment, borrowed from a loose poet,* and should we 
hear him venting, with oracular sententiousness and solemnity, 
a great number of whimsical falsehoods and glaring contradic- 
tions ; what educated man or woman could refrain from laugh- 

* The motto of the Bishop's last theological lecture is the following: 
* Let him write now who never wrote before: 

' Let those, who always wrote, now write the more. — Trav. Anon.' 
These lines are burlesqued from the following, which are inscribed on the 
Temple of Venus, in certain celebrated gardens, an^ we borrowed from 
the Pervigilium, Veneris, ascribed to Catullus: 

« Cras amet, qui nunquam amavit: 
* Quique amavit, cras amet.' 
See the translation of this distich in ParnePs Poems. 



344 



Postscript. 



ing in his face ? Indeed who could suppose that such a per- 
sonage meant any thing else but to be laughed at 1 Now, my 
Lord, has not the Public lately witnessed the verification of 
this supposition ? In fact, what other lectures does this bur- 
lesquing Prelate, alluded to, deliver, a& a system of religious 
instructions to the ignorant Welsh Jumpers, English Methodists, 
Baptists, Independents, &c. but these : I bring you here, good 
•people, a new Catechism, and Three Words and One Word 
more, in defence of it, which I have just composed for your com- 
mon use. This Catechism will not perplex you with any articles 
of belief, concerning God, or Christ, or Redemption, or Grace ; 
nor will it incommode you with any ordinances of the Command- 
ments, the Sacraments, the love of God and man, and the like : it 
requires nothing of you but to adhere to your common Protest- 
ancy ; which essentially consists in two points ; first, in 1 the ab- 
juration of Popery and the exclusion of Papists from all power, 
ecclesiastical or civil :'* and secondly, in ' holding that the wor- 
ship of the Church of Rome is idolatrous : for they, who do not 
hold this latter doctrine, are not Protestants, whatever they may 
profess to be.'\ You have hitherto believed that the Catholics 
(as all the world calls them, but whom I call Papists) existed be- 
fore the Protestants, and, unfortunately, all writers of all coun- 
tries, ancient and modern, have combined to propagate this false 
opinion ; but I, the present Bishop of St. David's, assure you, 
upon my own authority, that ' the Catholics are not our elder 
but our younger brothers :'| that ' their Religion, consisting, as 
it does, in acknowledging the Pope's supremacy^ is- a novelty of 
the seventh century. '\ Hence you clearly see that the Protestants 
abjured Popery and excluded the Papists from all power, six 
hundred years before Popery was invented : you see, moreover, 
that all their Popes, to the number of sixty-six, who lived during 
those ages, and, among the rest, Gregory the Great, i the most 
learned and virtuous of the Roman Popes'% whose missionaries 
converted our ancestors from Paganism, were all Protestants. 
But, though Gregory himself was a Protestant, and '■reprobated 
the supremacy,'** yet, his missionary , Augustin, and his other 

* Prot. Catech. p. 12. t Ibid p 46. 

t THREE WORDS, p. 17- § Catech. p. 11. 

il Ibid. p. 14 — N. B. This learned Prelate, contradicting himself, says in 
another page of hi3 Catechism, p. 22, that, « the Papal dominion did not 
exist before the time of Hildebrand, whom he calls Clement VII. in the 
eleventh century.' Now, we have hitherto been taught that Clement VII. 
was not chosen Pope till the year 1523, and that he was the Pope who re- 
fused to divorce Henry VIII, from his lawful wife, and thus gave occasion 
to the I nglish schism! What a system of new lights is this Protestant's 
CaUchism V Catech. p. 16. •* Ib'd 



Postscript. 



345 



Papal envoys, laboured to bring over our British and Irish Bi- 
shops to submit to his supremacy, that is, to embrace Popery /* 
You are further to learn that, although Popery is essentially 
' Idolatry, it did not become a schism till the sixteenth century ! 
1 ' Happy would it be if their (the Catholics) eyes could be open- 
i ed to the false foundations of a foreign jurisdiction, which led to 
I that most unnational schism of the sixteenth century, and could 
jl be induced to repair the evils of their past defection, by return- 
ing to the bosom of their Mother Church in England and Ire- 

1 land /'f But, alas ! these ' Catholics separated from their 

Mother Church, and this separation was THE GRAND 
SCHISM of the sixteenth century.'J— — Such, my Lord, are 
: the humorous self-confuting lectures which this good-natured 
Bishop puts on his Mitre to deliver to us in his Protestant's 
Catechism ; and which, besides the amusement they afford us, 
i inform us of what I so much wanted to learn, namely, at what 
period the Prelate dates the defection of Catholics from the 
Protestant Church, and the commencement of his Grand Schism. 
It is probable, however, that some difficulties which he met 
with in bringing the reigns of Queen Mary and Oliver Cromwell 
in England, as well as that of Francis I. in France, and of Philip 
II. in Holland, into his system, caused him to give up his pro- 
mised work on the Grand Schism, in despair. 

In proof, however, that his Lordship was serious when he 
published his Catechism, he offers different pleas in his Three 
Words, and One Word. He says, in the first place : 'If I 
taught, nothing about God, or Christ, or the commandments, in 
my Catechism, Dr. M. may see these subjects treated in some 
of my other works,'§ To this I answer, very possibly this 
may be the case ; still, a Bishop's Catechism, which contains 
not a word of Christian doctrine or practice, and which teaches 
nothing but intolerance and persecution, is an unexampled phe- 
nomenon in Christianity. — Besides this, I may say, that I have 
applied at the shops of all the Bishop's publishers to purchase 
some of his best publications, and at the shop in the Strand, No. 
107, barely to get a sight of them, without success. The 
Prelate adds, * There is, at least, one great moral and practical 
lesson inculcated in the Protestant's Catechism, which Dr. M. 
has overlooked, though taught by St. Peter himself, namely, 
submission to the king's entire sovereignty.'|| — And does the 
Right Rev. Author of the Catechism allege this, in proof of his 
seriousness in composing and publishing it, which, if it means 



Catech.P. 24. t Three Words, Advertisem. p. iv t Ibid. p. 16 
§ Three Words, Advertisem. p. 19. « P- 20. 



346 



Postscript. 



any thing, evidently means that we are always to submit the j 
business of Religion to the supreme power of the state, whethei \ ( 
Christian, Jewish, or Pagan ! In fact, did St. Peter so submit, 
when he answered the Magistrates, who had forbidden him and | 
his fellow Apostles to preach the name of Christ : We ought to . 
obey God rather than men, Acts v. 29. 1 And if the first Pro- 
testants had adopted this doctrine, may we not presume, that ; 
the Bishop of St. David's would be found, at the present day, 
delivering lectures of an opposite tenour to those contained in 
his Protestant's Catechism ? 

But the Prelate advances in his career, so far as to say : 
* The six and thirty pages addressed to the author of the Pro- 
testant's Catechism, afford no answer to that Catechism, and 
invalidate none of his positions.'* — Heu prisca fides! Heu Can- 
dida Veritas ! whither are you fled, when a Christian Bishop, 
professing 1 to follow truth, whithersoever she leads, in the ut- 
most sincerity and ardour of his soul,'f with the Protestant 
Catechism in one hand, and the Address to the Bishop of St. 
David's in the other, can deliberately affirm, that the latter 
work is no answer to the former, and that it does not so much 
as invalidate its positions ! Is it then no answer to his" loose 
conjectures concerning St. Paul's having visited Britain, and 
his still more groundless assertion of St. Paul having converted 
its inhabitants, to refer to the positive testimony of all the ori- 
ginal writers of our history, British, Saxon, Roman, and Gallic, 
in proof that the Britons were generally converted by Fuga- 
tius and Duvianus, legates of Pope Eleutherius, in the second 
century? — Does it not invalidate his positions to trace a suc- 
cession of communications with, and of submission to, the See 
of Rome, on the part of the British Bishops, by their frequent- 
ing her synods and receiving her legates, and to demonstrate, 
that even the Prelate's own predecessor in the See of St. Da- 
vid's, and his favourite author Giraldus Cambrensis, claimed 
before the Pope himself, in the twelfth century, to have legatine 
jurisdiction throughout Wales, by the grant of St. Germanus, 
one of these Papal envoys ! — Are not his positions invalidated 
by the evidence I have brought from authentic documents, and 
acknowledged by Usher himself, that the Irish and Anglo-Saxon 
Christians were equally indebted, for their conversion, to the 
Popes ; the former to Pope Celestine, the latter to Pope Gre- 
gory the Great ; and that they ever continued united with the 
See of Rome in the belief of Purgatory, the Invocation ol 
Saints, the sacrifice of the Mass, Transubstantiation, and the 



* P 15. 



i P. 20. 



Postscript. 347 

Pope's Supremacy ? Have I not shaken his system, when I 
evinced, in particular, that every one of our Primates, form St. 
Augustin, in the sixth century, down to Cranmer, in the six- 
teenth, received his confirmation or institution [from which 
alone he derives his Archiepiscopal jurisdiction,} by a Special 
grant of the Pope ? — Should the Right Rev. Prelate, after this, 
signify, in my hearing, that I have not sufficiently answered him, 
he will not find me backward in so doing 

But, it seems, the work itself was, in the opinion of the Pre- 
late to whom the Address is made, answered a century before 
it was written. In fact, he says : 4 In this elaborate correspond- 
ence, though not without its interest of learning and research, 
there is nothing material advanced in defence of Popery, to 
which the reader will not find an answer in Bishop Bull's Let- 
ters to Bossuet, and Smith's Errors of the Church of Rome de- 
tected, 1 * Bull, who was Bishop of St. David's at the beginning 
of the last century, was certainly an able and learned divine 
and drove his Arian adversaries before him ; but, after this, 
levelling his horns at the rock of St. Peter, they were broken 
short by a Catholic Divine of equal talents and superior learn- 
ing, Dr. Edward Hawarden, S. T. P.f Smith, of Dover, was 
one of those wretched Priests, who, wanting the grace necessary 
for living up to the strictness of their obligations, have attempt- 
ed to excuse their breach of them, by abusing the Church 
which imposes them upon them. His puny embryo was stifled 
in the birth, and he himself, soon after his fall, met with that 
awful end, which has been the general fate, within our own me- 
mory, of this class of converts,\ as the Prelate calls them.§ But, 

* P. 14. t See Preface to his True Church of Christy vol. ii. 

$ Dean Swift used to say of such ' converts from Popery;' 1 wish, when 
the Pope weeds his garden, he would not throw his nettles over our wall. 

§ Smith dropped down dead in Canterbury Cathedral, about the year 
1780. About the same time an unprincipled priest of Staffordshire, of the 
name of Tayler, met with the same awful fate in stepping into a stage 
coach. Another still more unprincipled priest, who chose to incur ex- 
communication, and who even denied the inspiration of Scripture, Dr. 
Geddes, used to send for the helps of the Church when he was sick, and to 
laugh at them when he recovered. At last a priest actually coming to re- 
concile him to God and the Church, found that he had unexpectedly ex- 
pired. Lewis of Leominster, having sent his concubine to bring up his 
breakfast to his bed, was found a corpse by her. Holmes of Essex, and 
Rogers, alias Rozier, of Birmingham, who the evening before ailed noth- 
ing, were found in the morning' breathless. James Quesnel and James 
Nolan, having both been warned by their friends, to my certain knowledge, 
of the fate they might expect, but continuing to waver about returning to 
their duty, dropped down dead in the streets, the former at Worcester, the 
latter in London. My townsman, Billinge, finding himself summoned 



343 



Postscript. 



my Lord, as that adamantine chain of demonstration, . whicn 

encircles the three parts of the work- in question, was not bro- j , 

ken before it was knit together, so it never will be broken, till j | 

the Gates of Hell prevail against the Church of Christ. , 

The Right Rev. Author evidently flatters himself that, at all , 
events, he has solved three of the enigmas, or paradoxes, which . 
I had pointed out in his Catechism : nevertheless, they still are ( 
as fast closed as ever. For is it not evident, that Religion, , 
of no description whatever, excludes any man from Pralia- , 
ment, except the Catholic? Did not Lord George Gordon, a , 
JVI. P. profess himself a Jew, wear a beard about a foot long, , 
and die in the embraces of a Jewish harlot ? Did not Edward , 
Wortley Montague, another M. P. believing himself to be the 
son of the . Great Turk, declare himself a Mahometan ? And | 
those our civil and military officers, who, in the island of Cey- , 
Ion, a few years ago, joined in the public worship of Budho, , 
the brother idol of the blood-stained Jaggernaut, are they ex- , 
eluded from Parliament on this account ? — As to * the inviola- 
ble covenants of the two unions,' which the Prelate maintains, | 
must ever exclude Catholics from all power : it is still mattei ] 
of demonstration that one of them, which, according to him, has 1 | 
been violated more than once, does not so much as allude | 
to them; and that the other alludes to them for the express , 
purpose of acknowledging, that they may be admitted into | 
Parliament ! — As to his third parodox, it suffices to say, that | 
its Right Rev. Author still maintains that his Majesty cannot , 
lawfully accept of The Veto, and yet that we violate our alle- j 
giance, by not conferring it upon him ! Thus, according to the ; 
Prelate, we are traitors for not committing an unlawful act ! . 

Thus much I have said, in answer to the Prelate's ONE ( 

WORD to me, which word, however, is seen to embrace so*' ;i 

great a variety of subjects ! With respect to his Lordship's ( 

THREE WORDS to General Thornton, they are confined to j 

The Declaration, by which every Member of Parliament is re- ■ 

quired to swear — not his belief in the Articles of the Church of ( 

away, sunk into despair, starting continually, and exclaiming: « I am a lost 
man ! I am a lost man ! I dream of nothing but of hell-fire !' How unlike 

the end of his confrere, Austin Jennison, who having been struck dumb by r 

his conscience, in the pulpit, which so ill became him, hurried the same a 

day from his living, near Edinburgh, his pretended wife and property, first | | 
to London and thence into France, about the year 1768, where he died in 

penance and peace. Doran blew out his brains, near Newbury. A do- P 

tailed history of the converts to, and apostates from, the Catholic Church, f 

in this kingdom, since the defection of Henry VIII. would form i most in- , u 
foresting and useful work. , 



Postscript. 



349 



England ; — nor in the truth of Christianity ;— nor in the ex- 
istence of God — bur that * the invocation of any Saint, and 
the Sacrament, (as it is ignorantly termed of the Mass) as they 
are now used in the church of Rome, are superstitious and idol- 
atrous.' Thus we see that a M. P. may invoke the Devil to take 
away his own soul or that of his neighbour, and may proclaim 
that the Mass, as used by the Russians, Greeks, and many other 
sects, believing in Transubstantiation, is holy and salutary, and 
still keep his seat ; provided he swear that these self -same 
things, as used by Catholics, are idolatrous ! Gracious heaven ! 
was ever such a qualification for legislating devised or thought 
Of by any human beings, except by the last Parliament of Charles 
II. ! If history had been quite silent on the subject, would not 
the Act itself prove that the Parliament and the nation were in a 
crisis of frenzy when it was passed 1 In fact, history does inform 
us, that they both were then worked up, by an unprincipled hypo- 
crite, who was brought up a rebel and died a regicide assassin,* 
[assisted by the perjury of an unnatural monster,]! to believe that 
the Catholics, who had saved the King's life in their Priests' 
hiding-holes, when he was a Protestant, at. the risk of their own 
lives, and when they might have gained j£100,000 by betraying 
him, had plotted, now that he wus a Catholic, to murder him, by 
stabbing him, by poisoning him, and by shooting him with silver 
bullets, and afterwards to bring over 30,000 pilgrims, armed with 
black bill-hooks, from St. Jago in Spain, to overturn the govern- 
ment ! History tells us, moreover, that, on the credit of this 
plot, near 20 Catholics were actually hanged and quartered, and 

all their nobility confined in prison! 1 have spoken of our 

ancestors, I now speak of our posterity, concerning whom I will 
confidently affirm, that if any thing will equal their astonishment, 
that so unjust, false, malicious, and absurd an Act, as that con- 
taining the Declaration, should have passed through the Houses 
in the 17th century, and this under the hypocritical pretext of 
* An Act for the better preservation of his Majesty's person and 
Government,' ; will be that the same Act, and under the same 
hypocritical title, should have remained unrepealed till the pre- 
sent period in the nineteenth century. And yet it does stand un- 
repealed at the present hour, — a signal monument of the religious 
and- moral integrity of the Catbolics, in still refusing to purchase 
honours and emoluments at the expense of a false oath, [which 
persons of other religions have taken, with the consciousness 
either of swearing a falsehood, or of swearing what they do not 
understand, when they swear that the Catholic worship is idola 



Lord Shaftesbury 



♦ Dr. Titus Oatea. 



350 



Postscript. 



trous] as likewise in their bearing the infamy or perjury rathei 
than the guilt of it. In fact, the whole latter part of the De- j 

claration is swelled out with implied charges against Catholics, j 

of evading the obligation of oaths by 4 equivocations, mental re- i : 

servations, and Papal dispensations,' which vile expedients, if 1 

they actually possessed them, it is self-evident, would render the I 

whole Declaration nugatory. t 

General Thornton, in his late Parliamentary Speech, against ( 

the Declaration, which pronounces the Catholics guilty of i 

Idolatry, takes up the subject on the grounds just stated, that a 

is to say, upon Protestant grounds. Accordingly, he feelingly t 

appeals to the Members of Parliament themselves, whether it a 

be not 4 abhorrent from their religious and moral feelings,' to <j 

charge their fellow Christians upon oath, with the guilt of « 

idolatry, while they not only clear themselves of that crime, but o 

also were acquitted of it by the most learned Protestant Bishops { 

and Divines this country could boast of, when the Declaration i] 

was devised.* The General then argues as follows: 4 How is ti 

it to be accounted for, on any just principle, that those, who, n 

preparatory to their going into holy orders, are called upon to ti 

subscribe to the 39 Articles of Religion, after it has been their |< 

duty to make this subject their particular study, should only o 

be required to consider the practice as having given occasion to \\ 

many superstitions, when the Members of both Houses of Par- n 

Uament, on taking their seats, are obliged to declare, that they \\ 
solemnly and sincerely, in the presence of God, do believe the 

practice not only to be superstitious, but likewise idolatrous ? C 

— Let me beseech the House to consider well the consequences gj 

of it.' Here the Rt. Rev. Prelate chooses to make a vigor- p 

ous assult upon the General, by way of proving that the law g 

requires no stronger declarations against the Catholics, from w 

Members of Parliament, than it does from the Clergy of the \\ 

Establishment ; and that the latter, in subscribing the 39 Arti- j„ 

cles, do, in fact, charge the Catholics with idolatry. Let Sr 

us now attend to his proofs. He says: "The Articles*, be- j s 

sides saying that the doctrine of Transubstantiation has given \\ 

occasion to many superstitious, say moreover, that it is repug- | e 

nant to the plain sense of scripture, and overthrowetk the natun \ {] 

of a Sacrament i and that the Sacrament was not, by Christ's t j 

ordinance, reserved, carried about, lifted up, and worshipped, jg 

* Such as the Bishops Jeremy Taylor, Blandford, Montague, Forbes, re 

Gunning, Archbishop Sheldon, Prebendary Thorndike, Chillingworth, &c tei 

When the Declaration was under consideration in the House of Peers u r 

Bishop Gunning, of Ely, protested that he could not in conscience swea* ^ 
it. Burnet's Hist, of his &m} Times. 



Postscript 351 

At qui : — Ergo. Now, my Lord, I appeal to your Lord- 

jlrip's theological learning, first, whether a thousand tenets and 
practices may not be repugnant to scripture, and may not over- 
throw the nature of a Sacrament, without constituting idolatry 1 
Secondly, whether a Member of Parliament, for example, or 
his worship the Mayor, or a worshipful Alderman, or any- man's 
own wife, whom he has married according to the form in The 
Common Prayer Book, may not be reserved, and carried about, 
and lifted up, and worshipped, without making such a person 
an object of idolatry ? In case your Lordship answers these 
two questions, as every other man of sense will do, it is evident 
at once, that the Act of 30 Car. II. by the Declaration in 
question, does impose an infinitely heavier burden on the con- 
sciences of Parliament-men, than the 39 Articles do on those 
of Churchmen. Thus it is demonstrated, that the Right Rev. 
f Bishop has made a false attack on the gallant General ; and 

f that he has been completely beaten on his own ground. As 

i to the Prelate's disingenuous statements of the arguments in 
i my foregoing Letters on the Real Presence and Transubstan- 
( tiation, and his feeble nibbling at them, in his Appendix, I shall 
iiji leave them to make whatever effect they are capable of making 
' on the minds of intelligent readers, satisfying myself with bare- 
ly requesting them, after they have perused the Prelate's state- 
ments and objections, to look back again upon the arguments 
themselves. 

In conclusion, my Lord, I am so little apprehensive that the 
S Catechism and the defence of it, put together, will induce a 
single member of the Great Universal Church to quit what the 
Prelate, whimsically and by Antonomasia, calls The Grand 
Schism of the sixteenth century, that I might safely promise, 
without danger of being called upon to make my promise good, 
that, upon satisfactory proof of this having happened in one 
instance, I would furnish a second instance in myself. Nor 
am I, in the least, fearful that a single Peer or Gentleman, who 
is not otherwise induced to vote in Parliament against the Ca- 
jtM f tholic Claims, will be influenced to do so by these episcopal 
lectures. All I dread is, that, as the Catechism is now reduced 
!uf|* in size and expense, for the evident purpose of being widely 
circulated amongjhe furious jumpers of Wales, and the no less 
ignorant and infuriate mobility of the metropolis, who, have al- 
ready deeply imbibed his Lordship's grand principle of Pro- 
testantism, the swearing against Popery, they may be worked 
i up by it to equal demonstrations of zeal with those which we 
*\ Witnessed in the former champion of Protestantism, Lord 



-4, 



352 



Postscript. 



George Gordon, and his associators. These, we remember, 
argued the Catholic Question against Members of the Legisla- 
ture with their fists and clubs, confuted the Catholics by burn- 
ing down their chapels and houses, and demonstrated the purity 
of their Religion, by demolishing the prisons and storming the 
Bank. 

I have the honour to remain, my Lord, 

Your Lordship's obedient Servant, 

J. M. D. D 

Wolverhampton, March 7, 1819. 



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